A while ago I made a list of all of the minimal clauses in WSL, and last night I thought that might make a good source for semantically-bleached phatic expressions. I ended up not actually using many items from that list after all, but here's all the phatic expressions I have for WSL now:
Attention getting: ("hey", "excuse me", etc.)
<k'asev mi i> Literally "I say"
Greeting: ("Hello", "what's up?", etc.)
<ka seru!> No easy literal translation; a reduction of a longer phrase meaning "I am aware of you."
<em intc?> Literally "What is there?".
Leave-taking: ("See you later", etc.)
<payum> "Goodbye" An extremely reduced form of what was originally a long phrase meaning "(I hope) you will be well".
<ka por inz> "See a later" (literally "it is to the appropriate time")
Thanking / Acknowledging: ("Thank you", "you're welcome')
<sa la> "Thank you" (literally, "it is good", a reduction of "You are a good person")
<ka tara> Serves as both "please" and "you're welcome". (literally, "there is pain", a common reduction of two longer phrases meaning "Sympathize with me" and "I sympathize with you")
<tce tara> An alternative "you're welcome" (literally, "there is no pain")
Back-channeling: ("uh-huh")
<ka miy> -- literally indicates provisional agreement with a statement. In literal usage, it should alternate with <sa miy> for different statement with different clause types. As a phatic expression, it just indicates that you are continuing to listen.
<votc pek> -- approx. "oh no!" An alternative back-channel word to indicate that you have understood that something is unfortunate.
Anybody else put thought into phatic expressions? Or know of a published typology of phatic expressions that might provide a different or more extensive list of categories?
I've recently started using hellotalk a fair bit (admittedly with the help of Google translate) and it feels very blunt to just fire questions at people.
In English I would get around with by starting it with phatic utterances (if I remember Alevel English right) such as "ah cool, and you..." or "okay then, so..." and other little bits of speech that make it feel less like an interrogation.
Is this just me not being used to how chinese is, or should I be adding little εs and so on?
Tom Scott has a lot of wonderful videos on language, and I thought this new video of his was worth putting here. Little differences between English dialects can be fun to learn. I hadn't heard of the term "phatic" before, and I was not previously aware that "What's up?" would be a potentially concerning way to greet someone in Britain despite being very standard here in the US.
I used to not understand why people speak meaningless words to each other and waste their time.
Then I found the answer. It's so they feel good. It's an evolutionary replacement of touch, and it's called "phatic expression" (aka small talk). The problem is it's often not consensual.
It is odd to ask someone else to touch you because you want to feel good, but it's ok to require phatic expressions, which take even more time than touch, and are just as lacking in information. And yet, it's common. Waste your time on us, because we need to waste the majority of our time checking each other or we won't feel good. It's like if you were required to sex everyone occasionally.
People know well that intimacy should be consensual. Yet they see no connection between intimacy and meaningless words - this needs to change.
Hi gang.
I was putting together some examples of phatic greetings for coworkers, I'm curious if anyone has either compiled a compelling list of non-English examples. The more idiomatic the better. I've only been able to find a handful, and some are not really common in non-familial use (e.g., "have you eaten" in Chinese).
Thanks!
Pahtic communication is the thoughtless chirping of the masses.
Lemming one: "Good morning."
Lemming two: "Good morning."
Lemming one: "Nice day."
Lemming two: "Beautiful!"
What looks like an exchange of option, I.e. the goodness state of the morning, is in reality an instinctual acceptance of tribal ties. Phatic communication is a pre-programmed response mechanism for those invested in a specific society at a specific time and place. It is regional and cultural. And always initiated non verbally.
This is the literal transcript from a interaction I just had on the sidewalk.
Stranger "Nice out."
RMFN "The sun behind a cloud?"
Stranger "Yes."
RMFN "All the heat, the second it went."
Stranger "Ha, yep. Dropped about ten degrees."
My second sentence did not make sense. But the slight temperature change and my muddled words transmitted the desired meaning. I was slightly taken a back. Did he miss hear me? Was he being nice? Or did he not even hear my mistake?
Emphatical: archaic variant of emphatic. origin 1570s
Emphatic: showing or giving emphasis; expressing something forcibly and clearly. origin 1708
Phatic: denoting or relating to language used for general purposes of social interaction, rather than to convey information or ask questions. Utterances such as hello, how are you? and nice morning, isn't it? are phatic. origin 1923
The root is the Greek phatos "spoken, that may be spoken,".
The "-ic" ending comes from the Greek way to turn it into an adjective (-ikos), and the "-al" comes from the Latin way to turn it into an agjective (-alis).
The confusing part is that I would have expected the root word (phatic) to be the oldest, then the words with extra endings to be older. For example, Muse -> Music -> Musical.
\ FAT-ik \ , adjective;
Denoting speech used to create an atmosphere of goodwill.
"They're just filling the air with noise. This is what's called phatic speech. "How are you?" they might ask" (Adriana Lopez, Fifteen Candles).
Do your worst!
For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.
I said "hey look, an escaPEA"
No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!
Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies π
Theyβre on standbi
