phatic en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ˈfætɪk/
Etymology
From Ancient Greek φατός (phatós, “spoken”) - from φημί (phēmí, “I say”) - + -ic. Probably formally influenced by emphatic, which predates this term.
Meanings
-
Pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship and whose meaning is otherwise either deemphasized or absent.
Dispensing with phatic chitchat, he began straightaway to tell the story of his “people.”
2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 467:Some dialects of a language may use a certain term or phrase in a phatic way, even if other dialects don't.
You needn't be angry about the insincerity of shopkeepers' how-are-you greetings. Well-adjusted people understand that the question is phatic in the context and that that's usually no problem.
Generally speaking, statements in WE are expected to be of a tautologous nature, thus fulfilling the essential phatic nature of speech.
1978, Anthony Burgess, 1985:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most phatic | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more phatic | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |
Deriveds
phatic communion · nonphatic · phatically
Relateds
phaticity · formulaic · phaticness · rhetorical
Translations (11)
pt fático (pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship) · id fatis (pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship) · ca fàtic (pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship) · es fático (pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship) · fr phatique (pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship) · de phatisch (pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship) · pl fatyczny (pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship) · fi faattinen (pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship) · hu fatikus (pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship) · sv fatisk (pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship) · nl fatisch (pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship)