Of, relating to, or being speech used to share feelings or to establish a mood of sociability rather than to communicate information or ideas.
[From Greek phatos, spoken, from phanai, to speak. See –phasia.]
phatically phat'i·cal·ly adv.
phatic
Dictionary:
phat·ic (făt'ĭk)  |
| Word Overheard: phatic |
"How are you?" and "Have a nice day" and other small-talk standbys — these are components of phatic speech, phrases we say to set a mood or express a feeling rather than to convey any actual information. (But phatic speech should not be confused with the slang phat, meaning top-notch):
"...captured in his speech, in which phatic blips like 'kind of' or 'sort of' are interspersed..."
Link: Gay Donor or Gay Dad? - New York Times
Posted November 20, 2006.
See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words. 
| Wikipedia: Phatic |
In linguistics, a phatic expression is one whose only function is to perform a social task, as opposed to conveying information.[1] The term was coined by anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski in the early 1900s.
For example, "you're welcome" is not intended to convey the message that the hearer is welcome; it is a phatic response to being thanked, which in turn is a phatic whose function is to be polite in response to a gift.
Similarly, in the English language, the question "how are you?" is usually an automatic component of a social encounter. Although there are times when "how are you?" is asked in a sincere, concerned manner and does in fact anticipate a detailed response regarding the respondent's present state, this needs to be pragmatically inferred from context and intonation.
As an example of the former: a simple, basic exchange, shared by many that see each other every day at work, but must fulfill that social obligation each morning, or at first contact:
Speaker one: "What's up?"
Speaker two: "Hey, man, how's it going?"
And each just walks on.
Neither expects an answer to his/her question. Much like a shared nod, it's an indication that each has recognized the other's existence and has therefore performed sufficiently that particular social duty.
The utterance of a phatic expression is a kind of speech act.
In speech communication the term means "small talk" (conversation for its own sake) and has also been called "grooming talking".[2]
See also
References
- ^ Malinowski, B. (1923) "The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages”, in: Charles K. Ogden / Ian A. Richards (eds.), The Meaning of Meaning, 146-152, London: Routledge
- ^ "Teach Yourself Linguistics", by Jean Aitchison, ISBN 978-0340870839
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| Translations: Phatic |
Dansk (Danish)
adj. - der bruger ord eller tale som meddelelsesmiddel
Nederlands (Dutch)
(van taalgebruik) vooral sociaal/emotioneel
Français (French)
adj. - phatique
Deutsch (German)
adj. - keine spezifische Bedeutung vermittelnd
Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - (για ομιλίες) κοινωνικός, για δημόσιες σχέσεις
Português (Portuguese)
adj. - fático
Русский (Russian)
фактический, контактоустанав- ливающий
Español (Spanish)
adj. - términos de simple sociabilidad
Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - phatisk (vänlig)
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
交流感情的, 应酬的
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 交流感情的, 應酬的
العربيه (Arabic)
(صفه) تجاملي, للمجامله
עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - (דיבורים) שמטרתם לשמור על קשר חברתי
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 | speech acts (philosophy) |
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| Small talk |
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Word Overheard. © 1999-2009 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Obscure Words. © 2008 by Michael A. Fischer http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Phatic". Read more |
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| Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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Mentioned in
- speech acts (philosophy)
- function
- Small talk
- Locutionary act
- Baba Dharam Dass
- Small talk (phatic communication)
- Joe Btfsplk
- Lawrence of Aquilegia
- Net-poetry
- Nadirah X
- Mobile ticketing
- Register (sociolinguistics)
- Psychoanalytic Conceptions of Language
- Pragmatics
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