Monstrosity: Branding the Phatic

Abstract

‘For most of us’, writes poet Michael Pollick, ‘an average day is filled with phatic communication and we never even notice’:

We may call it small talk, but in reality we would be lost without [the] phatic […] Sociologists suggest that phatic communication, such as discussing the weather, opens up a social channel. This, in turn, can lead to more substantial or factual communication. Very few people start and end conversations with straight facts — phatic communication such as a handshake helps set the stage first. Some people are simply not comfortable with the idea of making meaningless ‘small talk’. Others seem to embrace the social ritual of phatic communication, even to the point of avoiding much factual conversation with others. Communication experts suggest finding a middle ground, using phatic communication as a means to open up more substantial conversation. Too much emphasis on small talk can make a person seem unfocused or chatty, while too little can make someone appear stern or unapproachable. The trick lies in finding a proper balance between factual and phatic communication.¹

Behind the idea that effective talk consists of ‘a proper balance between factual and phatic’ lies an abiding linguistic orthodoxy that speech consists of kernels of information surrounded by a variety of other tonal and lexical elements that indicate relationships between and attitudes of speaker and listener.