formalities.

We often take for granted the meanings of words that we tend to overuse, such as our formulated greetings and responses. Because we are obliged to uphold certain decorum, we often say our P's and Q's even if we sometimes don't mean them at all. Eventually, the essence of the orginal word or phrase becomes fade.

Take the cookie-cutter response to politely reject an offer, "No, thanks/ thank you". In the original phrase, "no" and "thank you" would exist as seperate entities - "no" indicating one's decline, "thank you", showing one's gratefulness for being offered at all. However, instead of saying it as "No, thank you", the line has somewhat morphed, where "thank you" runs on after "no", forming the fused "No thank you". Though the original intentions of the phrase are somewhat retained, the blatant meaning of the new line is subverted.

How about bidding "good" byes? We tend to take "Good-bye" and "Bye" as equals. However, this then implies that the "good" in "Good-bye" becomes redundant. Do we then still intend it to be "good"? (Though in the original phrase, "bye" doesn't actually mean anything on its own.) The same applies for the other greetings like "Good day", "Good morning", "Good night", and so on. Similarly (I might be wrong on this though), we use the Chinese farewell statement, zai jian, quite interchangeably with "Good bye", when the direct translation of the phrase is actually "See you again".


Still, I suppose this, arguably, may not actually be such a problem, or any problem at all. People generally understand and use these greetings and responses in like manner, however much different their meanings are from the prototypes. Life still goes on; it doesn't really change anything, anyway...

But I reckon it's still such a great pity to see Language being watered down ever so mindlessly. I feel the least we can do is make an effort to actually mean what we say. But I guess we don't have all that time to appreciate all this, huh? Well, then, good-bye.