ABSTRACT
A mere phrase of politeness, in use as much among savage tribes as in a European drawing-room, fulfils a function to which the meaning of its words is almost completely irrelevant. Inquiries about health, comments on weather, affirmations of some supremely obvious state of things – all such are exchanged, not in order to inform, not in this case to connect people in action, certainly not in order to express any thought. It would be even incorrect, I think, to say that such words serve the purpose of establishing a common sentiment, for this is usually absent from such current phrases of intercourse; and where it purports to exist, as in expressions of sympathy, it is avowedly spurious on one side. What is the raison d’être, therefore, of such phrases as ‘How do you do?’ ‘Ah, here you are,’ ‘Where do you come from?’ ‘Nice day to-day’ – all of which serve in one society or another as formulae of greeting or approach?
