Instigator / Pro
RationalMadman's avatar
35
RationalMadman
1702
rating
574
debates
67.86%
won
Topic
#2089

'Hello' is a term used for greeting.

Status
Finished

The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.

Winner & statistics
Better arguments
15
0
Better sources
10
6
Better legibility
5
5
Better conduct
5
4

After 5 votes and with 20 points ahead, the winner is...

RationalMadman
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Number of rounds
1
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One day
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One week
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Contender / Con
EricT's avatar
15
EricT
1440
rating
6
debates
0.0%
won
Description

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Round 1
RationalMadman's avatar
RationalMadman
Pro
#1
The definition of 'hello' inherently ties it to be used for greeting.

used when meeting or greeting someone

Used as a greeting or to begin a telephone conversation.

In other ways it's used, it is still functioning as a greeting but merely a more nuanced one.

It originates from a term used for greeting people that was known as 'hullo':
Hullo
Hello might be derived from hullo, which the American Merriam-Webster dictionary describes as a "chiefly British variant of hello",[16] and which was originally used as an exclamation to call attention, an expression of surprise, or a greeting. Hullo is found in publications as early as 1803.[17] The word hullo is still in use, with the meaning hello.[18][19][20][21][22]


What is greeting and how to we qualify something as used for that purpose?


to welcome someone with particular words or a particular action, or to react to something in the stated way:
The teacher greeted each child with a friendly "Hello!"
The unions have greeted the decision with delight/anger.


to welcome someone with particular words or a particular action, or to react to something in the stated way:
The men greeted each other warmly.
The mayor was greeted with shouts of anger.

When using the term 'hello' we are generally greeting. A key example to refer to for Con will be something like when Adele sings 'Hello' but really isn't greeting anyone, it's intended for the audience to hear in the song. Nonetheless, she is constructing a situation where there is an imaginary person that she is greeting in order to illustrate a poetic construct.


If you will observe, she is actually indeed greeting her ex lover in the context.


The 'attention grab' Hello and the 'surprise'.

The alternative uses of 'hello' are:
  1. something that is said to attract someone's attention
  2. said to someone who has just said or done something stupid, especially something that shows they are not noticing what is happening
  3. an expression of surprise

Refer back to what 'greet' is and see that clearly attracting someone's attention matches the former definition while the 'did something stupid' use of 'hello' is also a greeting via the latter definition of 'greet'. 

When one expresses surprise by saying hello, it's usually said to someone next to them as a nudge for them to realise the person is feeling surprised as well as to grab the attention of the person so that the speaker is listened to in what they say next.

An example given by Cambridge is:
'Hello, this is very strange - I know that man.'

I conclude that 'hello' is a term used for greeting.
EricT's avatar
EricT
Con
#2
in other languages, technically, the word "hello" does not exist. for example, in spanish, it is hola. While it translates to hello, it is technically not the word hello, so that means hello is not used for greeting in countries that do not use English as a first language.

Also, this is really poor debate topic so I wont exert any effort into it