{"id":129446,"date":"2020-02-27T13:34:15","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T21:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=129446"},"modified":"2020-02-28T08:22:58","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T16:22:58","slug":"129446","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=129446","title":{"rendered":"Watching The English By Kate Fox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here are some highlights<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Any discussion of English conversation, like any English conversation, must begin with The Weather. And in this spirit of observing traditional protocol, I shall, like every other writer on Englishness, quote Dr Johnson\u2019s famous comment that \u2018When two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather\u2019, and point out that this observation is as accurate now as it was over two hundred years ago.<\/p>\n

English weather-speak is a form of code, evolved to help us overcome our natural reserve and actually talk to each other. Everyone knows, for example, that \u2018Nice day, isn\u2019t it?\u2019, \u2018Ooh, isn\u2019t it cold?\u2019, \u2018Still raining, eh?\u2019 and other variations on the theme are not requests for meteorological data: they are ritual greetings, conversation-starters or default \u2018fillers\u2019. In other words, English weather-speak is a form of \u2018grooming talk\u2019 \u2013 the human equivalent of what is known as \u2018social grooming\u2019 among our primate cousins, where they spend hours grooming each other\u2019s fur, even when they are perfectly clean, as a means of social bonding.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Paxman cannot understand why a \u2018middle-aged blonde\u2019 he encounters outside the Met Office in Bracknell says \u2018Ooh, isn\u2019t it cold?\u2019, and he puts this irrational behaviour down to a distinctively English \u2018capacity for infinite surprise at the weather\u2019. In fact, \u2018Ooh, isn\u2019t it cold?\u2019 \u2013 like \u2018Nice day, isn\u2019t it?\u2019 and all the others \u2013 is English code for \u2018I\u2019d like to talk to you \u2013 will you talk to me?\u2019, or, if you like, simply another way of saying \u2018hello\u2019. The hapless female was just trying to strike up a conversation with Mr Paxman. Not necessarily a long conversation \u2013 just a mutual acknowledgement, an exchange of greetings. Under the rules of weather-speak, all he was required to say was \u2018Mm, yes, isn\u2019t it?\u2019 or some other equally meaningless ritual response, which is code for \u2018Yes, I\u2019ll talk to you\/greet you\u2019. By failing to respond at all, Paxman committed a minor breach of etiquette, effectively conveying the rather discourteous message \u2018No, I will not exchange greetings with you\u2019. (This was not a serious transgression, however, as the rules of privacy and reserve override those of sociability: talking to strangers is never compulsory.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are some highlights: Any discussion of English conversation, like any English conversation, must begin with The Weather. And in this spirit of observing traditional protocol, I shall, like every other writer on Englishness, quote Dr Johnson\u2019s famous comment that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129446"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129454,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129446\/revisions\/129454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}