Phatic expression

In linguistics, a phatic expression /ˈfætᵻk/ is communication which serves a social function such as small talk and social pleasantries that don't seek or offer any information of value. For example, greetings such as "hello" and "how are you?" are phatic expressions.

The term phatic communion ('bonding by language') was coined by anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski in his essay "The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages", which appeared in 1923 a supplementary contribution to The Meaning of Meaning by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards. The term "phatic" means "linguistic" (i.e. "by language") and comes from the Greek φατός phatós ("spoken, that may be spoken"), from φημί phēmí ("I speak, say").

Besides speech, in the digital world, phatic expression can also cover digital interactions. For example, liking someone's social media post can communicate social approval and as a consequence build rapport.

In phatic communion, speech acts are not communicative, since no content is communicated. According to Malinowski even such apparently "purposeless" speech acts as polite small talk, like "how are you?" or "have a nice day," even though its content may be trivial or irrelevant to the situation, perform the important function of establishing, maintaining, and managing bonds of sociality between participants.

In Roman Jakobson's work, the 'phatic' function of language concerns the channel of communication, for instance when one says "I can't hear you, you're breaking up" in the middle of a cell phone conversation (obviously, not Jakobson's example). This usage appears, for instance, in research on online communities and micro-blogging.

In speech communication the term means "small talk" (conversation for its own sake) and has also been called "grooming talking."

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 acknowledge the receipt of a benefit.

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