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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tonym" data-source="post: 2734990" data-attributes="member: 4127">Here is a quote defining phatic communion I yoinked off a website:"The fact that human beings tend to talk when they meet, often leads to a sense of discomfort, even hostility, when silence occurs in such a meeting. Because talk is often a first step in establishing a relationship it is characterised by a stock of conventional utterances which break such silences and help to establish the participants in a mutual situation in which awkwardness and tension gradually disappear. Social contact is, in turn, liable to generate speech between participants who have nothing to say. The ability to produce such speech is, potentially, a social asset.This kind of utterance was given the name phatic communion by Malinowski, the anthropologist who studied the speech and customs of the Trobriand Islanders. He described such talk as a means by which 'ties of union are created by the mere exchange of words.' Typically, in New Zealand, such phatic communion centres on comments about the weather, on personal appearance, enquiries about health, or affirmations about everyday things. It serves in an atmosphere-setting capacity.Phatic communion is the initial linguistic attempt to relate to another individual. If this relationship develops, then small talk will take over, and that in turn may lead to serious conversation. In any real situation all three types of talk may be intermingled according to the circumstances. "It was a long quote, but judging by the size of your musings, I predicted that you wouldn't mind.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Hrm...I don't know.  If somebody is a jerk, alcohol might make him a bigger, louder jerk, sure.  But a little wine or beer in the stomach of a nervous or shy fellow could be a good thing.  You seem to be really down on alcohol, and that's fine; alcohol can cause all kinds of problems.  But I wasn't saying drink until your personality changes or anything.  Alcohol has been called a social lubricant because it's a popular way to loosen people up and get them talking.  That's all I was saying.Tony M</blockquote>

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