"You are welcome" + Rule of Three (1819)

[Mullins, Bill]

I notice, particularly on NPR, that when an interviewer thanks an
interviewee at the end of a piece, the interviewee nearly always replies
"thanks" or "thank you" back.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Lal Zimman
> Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 12:00 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "You are welcome" + Rule of Three (1819)
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Lal Zimman <zimman at SFSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "You are welcome" + Rule of Three (1819)
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>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "You are welcome" + Rule of Three (1819)
> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---------
> >
> > How about "No problem!" which has pretty much replaced it
> among under-40s ?
> >
> > Other responses include "Sure!" and "Oh, That's all right!"
> >
> > JL
>
> I use "no problem" and "sure" regularly as responses to
> "thank you" but it hasn't *categorically* replaced "you're
> welcome" (for me at least) - it has to do with the level of
> sincerity in the "thank you"/"thanks".
> When it's a purely formulaic thank you, or a socially
> optional one (e.g.
> when passing papers back in a classroom, some students say
> "thanks", but most don't, or even after having a door held
> open..) they'll get the more casual response of "sure" or "no
> problem". OTOH, if someone thanked me seriously for something
> I'd done that was really deserving of thanks, I'd use "you're
> welcome."
>
>
> -Lal
>