Transcript of “”Yeah” as Response to “Thank You””
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Amber Hoadley calling from Reno, Nevada.
How are you guys?
We’re all right.
I’m fantastic.
It’s nice to talk to you, Amber.
Welcome to the show.
Yeah, thanks so much.
I’m really curious.
I was born and raised in the South, but I’ve pretty much just been traveling the West in my van for the last eight years or so, and I’ve finally settled down in Reno, Nevada, and I’ve lived here for about six months.
And I’ve just noticed a lot recently that whenever myself or I’ve noticed other people saying it, whenever I say thank you, the response is just, yeah.
And coming from the South where most people say you’re welcome or they say thank you back, it’s just been such an interesting shift to me.
And I’m just very curious, like, did it get shortened from something? Is this just because I’m close to California and it’s a little bit more casual language out here? I’m just, I’ve never heard that before.
And I’ve been noticing it more and more and more.
So, yeah, I just wanted to ask you all about it.
So you’re in a store and you have an exchange with the clerk and then you say thank you and they say, yeah. Is that the way it works?
And that’s it.
Mm—
Okay.
Yeah, this is, you can find many discussions of this online, so that tells us that it’s not that new.
So just to clear that up.
But what you’re encountering here is a different politeness tradition.
So it’s not necessarily a change so much as that you are geographically displaced.
You’re out of the ordinary politeness environment that you grew up with or are most familiar with.
And so some people may perceive that as rude.
I love that when you said, yeah, you did that rising tone with it because that is important because that indicates they are trying to introduce into this conversation a formality level which shows politeness and respect because they see you as an equal, a peer or a colleague.
So that’s kind of what’s happening here.
If they just said, yeah, then you might have thought it was rude.
But that yeah demonstrates that there’s still a tone of politeness there.
There’s still a feeling of I see you customer as a peer of mine.
And we have an equal relationship.
Cool.
That’s so fascinating.
Yeah, it definitely, it always sounds very happy.
It doesn’t sound dismissive in any way.
So I was just curious if it had gotten shortened from something.
But that’s so interesting to me.
Well, it could be yeah, you’re welcome, or yeah, of course.
Or, yeah, no problem.
But really, when we have these encounters where two people are in these commercial situations, there’s kind of a script where it really doesn’t matter how you say thank you.
And it doesn’t really matter how they respond as long as both parties respond at all.
That’s very true.
That’s a good point.
But sometimes when you have those, Martha, we’ve talked about this before, when you have those differing politeness traditions, there can be a perception that if you’re not getting exactly the response you’re used to, that the other person is rude.
Right.
Yeah, we get a lot of complaints from people who are unhappy that people say no problem, you know, as if it’s not a problem for them.
But I think it sort of doesn’t matter what the word is.
Now that you’re talking about this, I’m thinking that a lot of times when people thank me, I’ll say, sure.
You know, which is it?
You’re well, it’s more like, yeah, that’s kind of what I mean.
Yeah.
And I think you could, you know, say popcorn or something.
It’s more the tone of the voice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You completed the transaction by fulfilling your role in the script with some sound that acknowledged their statement.
Right.
And it’s hard to break away from knowing that it’s not really the actual words you say.
It’s that you say any words at all.
That’s the politeness part.
That’s where the most content is being transmitted, is that you returned their remark.
Right.
Definitely.
And your facial expression and just your body language.
So, yeah, Amber, maybe, as you said, maybe you’ll try popcorn or Labrador retriever or something like that.
But people do say things like my pleasure or anytime, and they often come with that same tone that you said.
Yeah, anytime.
My pleasure.
This kind of high-pitched way of phrasing it.
Hopefully I can chat again with you all soon.
This has been so fun.
Thank you for answering my question.
Our pleasure.
Take care of yourself, Amber.
Bye.
It is no problem for you to call us anytime, and it would be our pleasure.
Or send us email to words@waywordradio.org.
