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Off topic: "Meaningless" phrases in English people use every day
Thread poster: RominaZ
George Hopkins
George Hopkins
Local time: 15:30
Swedish to English
Quote Jan 26, 2012

A quote from what's his name? He doesn't eat fish either.

A lot of people don't know that.


 
George Hopkins
George Hopkins
Local time: 15:30
Swedish to English
Good, Tom Jan 26, 2012

"I'm evil", really wicked man...

 
TRA 2
TRA 2  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 15:30
Member (2014)
English to Italian
+ ...
Some more...back to topic Apr 24, 2012

"are you with me?"

"I don't get you"

"It goes without saying"


 
Dave Bindon
Dave Bindon  Identity Verified
Greece
Local time: 16:30
Greek to English
In memoriam
Not with you Apr 26, 2012

TRA 2 wrote:

"are you with me?"

"I don't get you"

"It goes without saying"



These are idiomatic phrases usually encountered only in spoken English, but I wouldn't classify them as 'meaningless'. Each one has a meaning and is far more than a 'filler'. On line MT may find them meaningless, but I would beg to differ


 
apk12
apk12  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 15:30
English to German
+ ...
To be honest... Apr 28, 2012

'Uno', to be honest, I obviously not only have absolutely nothing against this sort of phrases in all their forms but even pretty much enjoy texts full of them landing on my desk. All in all, at the end of the day, it's the word count that happens to pay my bills





[Edited at 2012-04-28 12:56 GMT]


 
wilhelmina
wilhelmina  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 09:30
English to Dutch
+ ...
with all due respect Apr 29, 2012

with all due respect always seems to be followed with a statement which doesn't show any respect.

 
Ty Kendall
Ty Kendall  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:30
Hebrew to English
Pragmatic functions Apr 29, 2012

Many so-called "meaningless" phrases have pragmatic functions.
They signpost, they mitigate.

"To be honest..." signals that what you're about to say will probably be harsh in some way.
"I'm not being funny but...." mitigates and signals that what is about to come will be controversial in some way.
"With all due respect..." mitigates the disrespect which is to come, or merely indicates disagreement in some contexts.
... See more
Many so-called "meaningless" phrases have pragmatic functions.
They signpost, they mitigate.

"To be honest..." signals that what you're about to say will probably be harsh in some way.
"I'm not being funny but...." mitigates and signals that what is about to come will be controversial in some way.
"With all due respect..." mitigates the disrespect which is to come, or merely indicates disagreement in some contexts.
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/im-not-being-funny-but.html
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Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 15:30
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Useful simply to get attention Apr 29, 2012

... before beginning on the main message.

My husband and I do not always start off with 'meaningless' or phatic phrases when we talk to each other - we come straight to the point.

I suppose we always talked that way, but now my husband has retired, he is home most of the time and does not get my undivided attention 24/7. When he was working, I had to take full advantage of the precious hours between coming home and bedtime, so we listened to each other!

No
... See more
... before beginning on the main message.

My husband and I do not always start off with 'meaningless' or phatic phrases when we talk to each other - we come straight to the point.

I suppose we always talked that way, but now my husband has retired, he is home most of the time and does not get my undivided attention 24/7. When he was working, I had to take full advantage of the precious hours between coming home and bedtime, so we listened to each other!

Now he comes in (at) the door and fires off some remark, which I simply do not catch, because I am translating or concentrating on something else. If I interrupt in the middle of the big Friday crossword or a football game, the roles are reversed...

With other people I almost always start with 'Hello, it's me' (whoever else would I be??!!) or something insignificant that can be skipped before we get down to the real business.

The problem, of course, is when people take these remarks too seriously - how do you get off how good/ill/well/evil they are and how awful the weather is, far worse than last winter... back to what you actually wanted to say?

But it's always acceptable to knock English, and there are so many dialects that we can alays blame people somewhere else on the globe...

Is there any language that does NOT have a large stock of apparently meaningless expressions?


[Edited at 2012-04-29 13:03 GMT]
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Kate Collyer
Kate Collyer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:30
French to English
+ ...
re "start at the beginning" Jun 14, 2012

This may *sound* meaningless but in some cases might be an intentional quotation of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland:

The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. 'Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?' he asked.
'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'

Depends on context, of course...


 
MikeTrans
MikeTrans
Germany
Local time: 15:30
Italian to German
+ ...
All in all... Jun 14, 2012

...is not a cliché: it should mean summa summarum (as a conclusion). People with structured minds may use it at the right moment without abuse.

A nice collection anyway!
Greets,
Mike

RominaZ wrote:

7.- All in all

As I think about what this phrase could have originally meant or what it could really mean, my brain has tied itself into a Gordian knot. Is it the opposite of “none in none”? A contrast to “some in some”? Is it supposed to imply that every single thing has been fitted into every other thing?

I’d better lie down now



 
Dave Bindon
Dave Bindon  Identity Verified
Greece
Local time: 16:30
Greek to English
In memoriam
Greek stock Jun 14, 2012

Christine Andersen wrote:

Is there any language that does NOT have a large stock of apparently meaningless expressions?


[Edited at 2012-04-29 13:03 GMT]


Greek certainly does (with the usual reservations about how 'meaningless' they actually are). A very common one is Άκου να δεις - literally "listen to see".


 
LingoTrust
LingoTrust
Local time: 09:30
"Full Disclosure" Apr 30, 2013

This phrase has seemed to become very popular in the business world. It's one of the things you don't notice until one day you hear it all the time.

example: "Full disclosure, I stayed late to work in the computer annex last Monday. Moving forward, let's make closing time at 6."

I also don't like "moving forward".


 
Triston Goodwin
Triston Goodwin  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 07:30
Spanish to English
+ ...
Bless your heart Apr 30, 2013

wilhelmina wrote:

with all due respect always seems to be followed with a statement which doesn't show any respect.


One that I hear a lot in the southern part of the US is "bless your heart." Which works a lot like "with all due respect," only it comes after the snide comment. Also, it's generally said by older women. One that made me laugh was an elderly woman who said to her scantily dressed granddaughter "you little [insert derogatory term here], bless your heart!"


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 15:30
French to English
moving forward May 1, 2013

LingoTrust wrote:

This phrase has seemed to become very popular in the business world. It's one of the things you don't notice until one day you hear it all the time.

example: "Full disclosure, I stayed late to work in the computer annex last Monday. Moving forward, let's make closing time at 6."

I also don't like "moving forward".


Totally with you on this LingoTrust! It's usually used in pretty stultifying contexts!

Sometimes I slip it into corporate bla-bla texts, when I've run out of opportunities to use "thinking outside the box". All in all, and to be honest, and of course meaning no disrespect whatsoever, it does give the prose that authentic corporate feel.


 
ThompsonText
ThompsonText  Identity Verified

Local time: 14:30
French to English
+ ...
moving/going forward May 24, 2013

Around here (UK), "going forward" seems to be the version preferred as a supplementary indicator of the future tense.

A client of mine is as amused as I am by business-speak, so when I wrote him an email to see if there were any new projects "in the pipeline going forward", he picked up on the deliberate language abuse, and replied:

Thanks for the heads up. I have taken your comments onboard and am currently scoping out a globally forward facing customer ce... See more
Around here (UK), "going forward" seems to be the version preferred as a supplementary indicator of the future tense.

A client of mine is as amused as I am by business-speak, so when I wrote him an email to see if there were any new projects "in the pipeline going forward", he picked up on the deliberate language abuse, and replied:

Thanks for the heads up. I have taken your comments onboard and am currently scoping out a globally forward facing customer centric delivery strategy designed to empower and focus client expectation.


Cheerio,
Chris
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"Meaningless" phrases in English people use every day






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