PHATIC COMMUNICATION AND ITS PRAGMATIC FUNCTIONS

Abstract

Phatic communication depends on the recognition of a communicative intention. This statement does not link phatic talk to pragmatic functions, but does reflect the fact that phatic utterances should be interpreted not only linguistically but also pragmatically. Proceeding from the assumption that the main aim of phatic communication is to establish and maintain social relationships between the speaker and the hearer, the paper aims at revealing the pragmatic and communicative functions of phatic talk on the basis of examples being selected from popular films and literature.