10.509, Sum: Phatic Communion

Thu Apr 8 18:15:31 UTC 1999

LINGUIST List:  Vol-10-509. Thu Apr 8 1999. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 10.509, Sum: Phatic Communion

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1)
Date:  Thu, 8 Apr 1999 13:58:18 +0100
From:  Ann Jorid Klungervik Greenall <ann.jorid.klungervik at hf.ntnu.no>
Subject:  Phatic Communion

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Thu, 8 Apr 1999 13:58:18 +0100
From:  Ann Jorid Klungervik Greenall <ann.jorid.klungervik at hf.ntnu.no>
Subject:  Phatic Communion

Hi,

I would like to thank everyone who responded to my query concerning phatic
communion. The key reference - i.e. the one that answers the question 'who
*introduced* the term phatic communion' - is the following:

Malinowski (1923) 'The problem of meaning in primitive languages'.
Supplement to C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards (eds.) The meaning of meaning:
A study of the influence of language upon thought and the science of
symbolism (pp. 451-510). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Other relevant references were also offered:

"The first "linguistically relevant" mention of phatic communication in
Roman Jakobson's "closing statement" to "Style in Language" ed. by Sebeok
(1960). Jakobson took this notion from Malinowski" (Wolfgang Settekorn).
This paper is also published in J. J. Weber (1996) (ed.). The stylistics
reader. From Roman Jakobson to the Present, 10-35. London/New York: Arnold.
(Zouhair Maalej).

"The appropriate section [i.e. Malinowski on phatic communion] is reprinted
in Laver, John & Sandy Hutcheson (eds.) 1972. Communication in face to face
interaction. Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp. 146-152" (Anthea F. Gupta).

"On p. 41 of Levinson's 'Pragmatics' he mentions the 'functions of speech',
among them the phatic function. He refers the reader to Lyons 1977a: 50-6
and Jakobson (1960) ('a modification of earlier schemes', esp. Bler's,
1934)" (Eva Delgato Lavn)

"Linguist David Crystal wrote, on page 10 of his Encyclopedia of Language
(Cambridge University press, 1987): "The anthropologist Bronislaw
Malinowski (19884-1942) coined the phrase 'phatic communion' to refer to
this social function of language, which arises out of the basic human need
to signal friendship - or, at least, lack of enmity"" (Leonor Santos)

A recent, more detailed account can be found in Haberland, H. Communion or
Communication? A historical note on one of the 'founding fathers' of
pragmatics" In: R. Sackmann (ed.). 1966. Theoretical Linguistics and
Grammatical Description, 163-166. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. (Robin
Sackmann)

The following were also mentioned as (possible) sources for the notion of
phatic communion, or 'phatic' in general:

D. Abercrombie (Robin Thelwall). J. L. Austin (who uses the term in a
slightly different way than 'Malinowskians') (Henrik Jrgensen). I. A.
Richards (1929:318); T. C. Pollock (1942;167); W. La Barre (1954:306)
(Annabel Cormack). A. Duranti ('Linguistic Anthropology' (1997, CUP))
(Vincent A. de Rooij). "RELEVANCE THEORY or NIK COUPLAND's papers on
sociolinguistics" (Anita Fetzer). R. M. Hare (Language of morals)
(Philip L. Peterson). S. J. Cowley and K. F. MacDorman (Simulating
conversations: the communion game. In: AI & Society (1995) 9:116-137);
C. Levi-Strauss (The Savage Mind, 1966:135) (Ken Hughes).
S. I. Hayakawa (1939=1972) (Hide Takahashi). G. Senft (In:
J. Verschueren, J. O. Ostman and J. Blommaert (eds.) Handbook of
Pragmatics, 1-10. Amsterdam,Netherlands: Benjamins.  1995);
J. Coupland, N. Coupland and J. D. Robinson ('How are you?':
Negotiating phatic communion. Language in Society. New York, NY. 1992)
(Emilce Rees).

See also the following web page:
http://education.leeds.ac.uk/~edu/inted/icu/discour1.htm (Matthew Dallaway).

Sincere thanks also to

Vera Schmiedtova, Georges Rebuschi, Cornelia Gerhardt, Hiroaki Tanaka,
Maria Tzevelekou, Frances Ingemann, James L. Fidelholtz, Daniel P. Loehr,
Fritz Serzisko, Richard Laurent, Monika Adamowicz, Geoffrey Sampson, Jan
Engh, Sukriye Ruhi, Johan Gille, Arne Kjell Foldvik, Bert Peeters, Herb
Stahlke, HyunJung Koo, Moeko Okada, Glenn Ayres, Patricia Kilroe, Andrew
Carstairs-McCarthy, Arthur Merin, Herb Stahlke, Linda Waugh, Jason Baird
Jackson, Daniel Romero, Joseph F. Foster, Mahendra K. Verma, H. Stephen
Straight, Jeffrey P. Kaplan, Sean Golden, Carl Mills, Monika Bruendl,
Daniel E. Collins, Kenjiro Matsuda, Scott DeLancey, Larry Trask, Kerstin
Fischer, Barbara Settineri, Timothy Dunnigan.

Best wishes,
Annjo

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Stipendiat Ann J. K. Greenall
Department of English
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
7491 Trondheim
NORWAY

Phone: +47 73 59 67 90
Fax:   +47 73 59 67 70

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