table pragmatics

[trochee]

I've just bought a new dining room table and matching chairs. I feel so gentrified. It was a bit of an ordeal, because the total was really astonishingly high.

anyway, I'm only writing about it because of the interesting locution that the gentleman who took my credit card had:

Hello, Macy's furniture, this is Rogelio! How may I provide you outstanding service today?

I can't tell what pragmatics rule this violates, but it seems to be startlingly off somehow.

Perhaps it's some kind of double-ironic Griceian toe-pick, intended to encode the phrase fuck you, I don't even know you, strictly by the mechanism of superfluity.

Comments

[trochee.livejournal.com]

that's an excellent point.

I think that may be the effect of it: something said frequently in sincerity becomes lexicalized/formalized until it becomes something-said-in-that-context no matter what. Like saying "thankyouverymuch" to bus drivers and rude 7-11 clerks, which I have a habit of doing all the time.

I saw a televised version of Brave New World that had all the People of the Future who would say hello by saying "helohowaryuwaimfaynthenkyuverrimutch", no matter who they were, what they came in to say, or whatever.

I wish I could remember whether this was in the book! But I'm too lazy to go look.

[isolt.livejournal.com]

Hee! to the Brave New World thing. I knew a girl once who decided to deliberately tell everyone who asked her exactly how she was really feeling. It tended to upset people, as they weren't really interested, just engaging in a formality.

I think the issue is, once an interaction has become that formalized, you can't break the rules in either direction -- not only can you not be too negative, you can't be too positive either, or it comes off rude. I suspect that's what's wrong with the greeting above. It's more perky than formality allows, and it comes off like sarcasm. There's probably a deeper analysis that I'm missing because I'm really tired.

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

I am kinda that girl. If you ask , don't be sorry you asked. Mean it !!!

[isolt.livejournal.com]

When in the company of friends, I religiously observe the formality and the immediately negate the "I'm fine" with the truth.

I make strangers uncomfortable by telling them I don't care how they spell my name.