[lit-ideas] Hello Dolly
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:38:41 EDT
In a message dated 8/31/2010 7:52:41 P.M., rpaul@xxxxxxxx writes:
I think it should be, 'Hi, Bob' or 'Hi, Mom,' or 'Hi, Senator Wyden,'
and so on, just as it should be (and is) 'Hello, Dolly,' and not 'Hello
Dolly.'
---
I would make a distinction between:
"Hello Dolly"
"Hello, Dolly"
--and the shorter versions:
"Hi, Dolly"
"Hi Dolly"
--- These all originated in calls to horses ("high", "hullo"). If you study
the American way:
"Hi Dolly", "Hi Bob", etc. you'll see that there is NO PAUSE whatsoever
after 'hi'.
/haibob/
/haidoli/
Therefore, to insert the 'comma' (what Grice charitably called "The Oxford
Comma") would be pretentious, because, strictly, you have to STOP and
inbreath after a comma.
"Hi! Bob!"
---- Both "Dolly" and "Hello" are OTIOSE. If you see the woman: she knows
that you know that she is Dolly. There is really no sense of REMINDING her
of her name. The 'hello' is of course also otiose, since she is not a horse.
In Rome, they say, "I am a slave". They say that at the beginning of a
conversation,
"I am a slave, Richard"
"I am a slave, Henry"
(TOPIC OF CONVERSATION)
"I am a slave, Henry"
"I am a slave, Richard"
---- the "I am a slave" (Sono il tuo schiavo -- strictly, I am YOUR slave),
got abbreviated, after some Popish bulls, to 'ciao', etc.
Speranza--Bordighear
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