I See You.

[MineralMan]

15. The thing is that I'm not trying to convince you of anything.

I found that greeting to be interesting, so I posted something about it. I have no illusions that it could replace our current customary greetings. I just found the language interesting in a linguistic sense.

My response to a "Hey, how are you doing?" greeting is to provide some feedback to the person about how I'm doing. I reply to the question with a word or two that indicates my general state of being at the time. "Great!" "Lousy." "Meh." I don't launch into an explanation, but do offer some information in my reply to that.

Same thing when I exchange greetings with a Spanish-speaking friend. We converse in Spanish. If a question is part of the greeting, I respond with a brief answer to that question. Communication takes place. Is it phatic? That depends. Not always. Sometimes the greeting and How are you doing question evolves into a conversation. Sometimes not. It depends.

"Hello." conveys nothing and gets nothing in return other than "Hi." A conversation requires more effort, but is always welcomed.