The Weather Hierarchy Rule
English weather speak is a form of code, evolved to help us overcome our socia inhibitions and actually talk to each other. Everyone knows, fo example, that ‘Nice day, isn’t it?’, ‘Ooh, isn’t it cold?’, ‘Stil raining, eh?’ and other variations on the theme are not request for meteorological data: they are ritual greetings, conversation starters or default ‘fillers’.
In other words, English weather-speak is a form of ‘groomin talk’ – the human equivalent of what is known as ‘socia grooming’ among our primate cousins, where they spend hour grooming each other’s fur, even when they are perfectly clean as a means of social bonding.
‘How do you do?’ is not a real question about health or well-being, and ‘Nice day, isn’t it?’ is not a real question about the weather.
Comments about the weather are phrased as questions
‘Cold, isn’t it?’, ‘Yes, isn’t it?’,
- as a simple greeting
- as an ice-breaker leading to conversation on other matters
- as a ‘default’, ‘filler’ or “displacement’ subject, when conversation on other matters falters, and there is an awkward or uncomfortable lull
- as a signal that the speaker wishes to avoid more personal topics
An appropriate response to ‘Ooh, isn’t it cold?’, if you find you really cannot simply agree, would be ‘Yes, but I really rather like this sort of weather – quite invigorating, don’t you think?’ or
‘Yes, but you know I don’t tend to notice the cold much – this feels quite warm to me.’ Note that both of these responses start with an expression of agreement, even though in the second case this is followed by a blatant self-contradiction:
