phatic speech
- noun
- /ˈfætɪk spiːch/
- Specialized
:
discurso fático
- In many cultures, phatic speech like 'How are you?' serves to build rapport between speakers.
Examples
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Every morning, the team exchanged phatic speech, such as greetings and comments about the weather, before starting work.
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During the meeting, he engaged in phatic speech to break the ice.
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The conversation was filled with phatic speech rather than meaningful discussion of the issue.
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She often uses phatic speech to greet her colleagues.
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Every morning, the team exchanged phatic speech, such as greetings and comments about the weather, before starting work.
-
In many cultures, phatic speech like 'How are you?' serves to build rapport between speakers.
-
The conversation was filled with phatic speech rather than meaningful discussion of the issue.
Synonyms
Brief talk that starts or keeps friendly contact without important information
How Social
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is compositionally transparent: 'phatic' (utterances signaling social connection) modifies 'speech' (spoken language), so the meaning 'speech used to establish or maintain social relationships' follows directly from the constituents. Although 'phatic' is a low‑frequency, technical term, if a learner knows the constituent meanings the overall MWE is predictable and non-idiomatic.
Etymology
Phatic speech comes from the everyday scene of small talk: short phrases like 'hello' or 'nice weather' that people use to start or warm a chat. The word parts help remember this: phatic means 'social' and speech means 'talk', so it refers to talk that builds or keeps relationships rather than to give information.