This puzzles me.
There are people, mainly nurses and women in barber shops, but sometimes in other businesses . . .
who say “You can go ahead and …” in front of every sentence.
Do these people not realize how strange this is?
The doctor or dentist or optician or barber will talk normally.
The dentist will say “Open wide” when inserting the suction thingie.
His assistant will say “You can go ahead and open wide” for that.
The doc will say “Please go into room A and remove your shirt.”
The nurse will say “You can go ahead and go into room A and go ahead and remove your shirt.”
One time a nurse “You can go ahead to that red spot on the floor, go ahead and wait for your name to be called, and then you can go ahead and go ahead.”
Upon reflection I see four reasons I find this odd.
The phrase is unnecessary - the others in the office don’t use it
It’s repetitive
The phrase seems to imply that I was planning to do those things and was just waiting for permission, but I had no idea what the next step in their routine was going to be.
No advice sought today, I don’t really need ways to make them aware of it, it’s just Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
I noticed a woman on daytime tv - okay I’ll admit it, it was a judge show - who said this repeatedly. It really irked me. I never noticed anyone else using this phrase.
I sometimes feel that people try to sound more intelligent by using as many words as possible. So speech writers won’t use “…at that time”, or even “…at that point in time”. They’ll insist on using “…at that particular point in time”.
According to Pliny, I think the difference you describe is in the level of authority the individual feels comfortable with. “Open wide” is an order. “You can go ahead and open wide” does not seem as much of a direct order as a suggestion.
Omitting the part “you can” and leaving it as “Go ahead and eat that grilled wombat” gives it a different connotation. The “you can” part is the portion that seems to control the permission-seeking aspect of the phrase. Omitting it means that permission has been granted and that you were already leaning towards consuming the yummy wombatty goodness, but that final straw was all that was needed.
Unless someone say “Eat that motherfucking wombat before I chop off your weiner and force feed it to your mother!”
That’s…not quite seeking any permission right there, no sir.
Could be a gender thing, women generally tending to manage through consensus rather than fiat. As for the implication that you were planning to do those things and were just waiting for permission, that could also be a gender thing with women: manipulation.
Should I cut my throat now or wait until I get home and into the bath?