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What influenced ppl to start using "I'm good" in answer to "how are you? " & in other contexts?

My swali is about the evolution of the expression "I'm good". I hear it used in two ways all the time. One is in answer to the swali "How are you?"

The other way it's used is to mean, "No thanks, I have enough," au "I'm all set here." For example: "Would wewe like zaidi ice cream?" "No thanks. I'm good." au this: "Did everybody understand my explanation?" "Yes, I'm good." It's also used in the same way in questions. A waiter might arrive at a meza, jedwali and say, "Are wewe good?" to people who appear to have finished eating, as a way of asking whether it's OK to take away their plates.


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bila mpangilio Majibu

Zeku said:
It could be a kind of illogical carry over from another language. This is a colloquialism that could have started with bilingual/illiterate populations. There are presumably many languages in which the word for "The state of (an object au person) being in fine condition (i.e. "good")", overlaps with the word that can also describe "The state of a person's mood, which yields nonmaleficence/positive social behavior".

This is also true in English if for example wewe "fill in the blank" and assume that good is short for "I am in good shape". Shortened to simply "I'm good". which is incorrect because it actually means "I am benevolent/I am well-behaved". The relationship between the words is not obvious, but it can make sense if a few tweaks are made to the sentence.

The phrase "I am in good shape" basically establishes this relationship between the words "fine/well" and "good", kwa materializing an abstract concept which is "mood" as a malleable physical ["geometrically-shaped"] object which can be thought of as "damaged/altered/broken" when a person is "feeling down", au be "well/fine" i.e. in an intact/good/aesthetically pleasing condition when it a person is psychiatrically healthy.

See Spanish for example, "Bien" (well/fine) versus "Bueno" (good). In this language, the words resemble each other zaidi closely. It is easy to assume that this is also the case in many other languages, and as wewe know, languages "evolve" as a result of people speaking incorrectly.

So for a bilingual person, it is "logical" because not all English 'word-usage customs' are taken into account, making it illogical for someone who knows the language to a better degree au is simply zaidi concerned with following its rules.

The implied "etymological assumption" is the following: "Benevolence/tidiness/stability (good) is to happiness (fine/well), as maleficence/evil/untidiness/instability (bad) is to unhappiness (not fine/unwell)".

Also consider the following: Fine and good, may also both overlap, and be misused in other contexts, as they can both also refer to gustatory appeal "Taste", and even auditory appeal, (not just visual appeal/condition). E.g. "Fine wine" au "Good wine" "A carefully put-together delicacy, au of high quality".

So in English, (as in many other languages) wewe can say "She is fine", and it could mean anything from "She is doing well", to "I really wanna hit the nyasi, nyasi kavu with her", and everything in between...

So in this case, a positive state of mind is being equated to a high visual appeal, and then, the phrase to depict that figure of speech is being shortened...


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