phatic

Definitions

Pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship and whose meaning is otherwise either deemphasized or absent.

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“Some dialects of a language may use⟳ a certain term or phrase in a phatic way, even if other dialects don't.”

“Generally speaking, statements in WE are expected to be of a tautologous nature, thus fulfilling the essential phatic nature of speech.”

“Dispensing with phatic chitchat, he began straightaway to tell⟳ the story of his “people.””

CEFR level