That's not lying. There's no intent to deceive - nobody is fooled. We know conventionally that he lives 'somewhere around Boston'; that he's offering an opening conversational gambit and not conveying emotional information; that we're confirming his right to enjoy something and not communicating a restaurant review.
If we must call it lying, then we need a new word for when someone tells an intentional untruth with the intent to deceive.
I would argue that lying is not deceiving. At least not all the time. Lying also has the meaning of intentionally telling a falsehood.
And there is some deception involved, even if unintentional. Describing a restaurant you didn't like as what a great place simply reinforces the speaker's (monologuer's) impression, even though his interlocutor obviously believes it to be false. In the second part of the paragraph I quoted, the second person is basically just holding a mirror for the speaker in which he (the speaker) can admire and enlarge his own self, while the listener encourages and cheers him on.
We know conventionally that he lives 'somewhere around Boston'
When Americans ask me where I was born, I don't say the actual country that no longer exists (USSR) nor the country that it is called now (Kazakhstan). I simply say Russia. The reason is that it's simpler for Americans to understand Russia.
What makes you think we understand Russia better than we understand Kazakhstan?
Maybe you wish to have imparted your culture or something, however I don't expect most people have any reasonable idea what the culture is like in neither Russia nor Kazakhstan.
Are you just hoping they know where it is on the map?
I should have expounded: I am ethnically Russian, as both of my parents' families moved from Russia to Kazakhstan when it was all USSR. So if I were to say I was born in Kazakhstan, most Americans would have no idea where it is. Those that know something about Kazakhstan would ask why I don't look Kazakh. Thus I just answer with Russia.
The word you're after for harmless lies is 'fibbing', closely related to 'fibble-fable' which presumably means a fable that isn't entirely true. Not to be confused with 'fiddle-faddle' which means to lark about without telling porkies.
Comments
That's not lying. There's no intent to deceive - nobody is fooled. We know conventionally that he lives 'somewhere around Boston'; that he's offering an opening conversational gambit and not conveying emotional information; that we're confirming his right to enjoy something and not communicating a restaurant review.
If we must call it lying, then we need a new word for when someone tells an intentional untruth with the intent to deceive.
I would argue that lying is not deceiving. At least not all the time. Lying also has the meaning of intentionally telling a falsehood.
And there is some deception involved, even if unintentional. Describing a restaurant you didn't like as what a great place simply reinforces the speaker's (monologuer's) impression, even though his interlocutor obviously believes it to be false. In the second part of the paragraph I quoted, the second person is basically just holding a mirror for the speaker in which he (the speaker) can admire and enlarge his own self, while the listener encourages and cheers him on.
They are both fooled.
We know conventionally that he lives 'somewhere around Boston'
When Americans ask me where I was born, I don't say the actual country that no longer exists (USSR) nor the country that it is called now (Kazakhstan). I simply say Russia. The reason is that it's simpler for Americans to understand Russia.
What makes you think we understand Russia better than we understand Kazakhstan?
Maybe you wish to have imparted your culture or something, however I don't expect most people have any reasonable idea what the culture is like in neither Russia nor Kazakhstan.
Are you just hoping they know where it is on the map?
I should have expounded: I am ethnically Russian, as both of my parents' families moved from Russia to Kazakhstan when it was all USSR. So if I were to say I was born in Kazakhstan, most Americans would have no idea where it is. Those that know something about Kazakhstan would ask why I don't look Kazakh. Thus I just answer with Russia.
I think he means it's easier to understand in the same way we would tell a Russian that we're American, rather than from Ohio.
The word you're after for harmless lies is 'fibbing', closely related to 'fibble-fable' which presumably means a fable that isn't entirely true. Not to be confused with 'fiddle-faddle' which means to lark about without telling porkies.