Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas
At 4:52 PM -0600 21/12/11, Carrol Cox wrote:
>Wojtek has the purpose and actual use of phatic language all wrong. It is
>language intended primarily to recognize the humanity of the person
>addressed. If you say hellow to someone at the elevator, & they reply, lousy
>weather today, isn't it, neither is conveying information other than the
>recognition of each other. Wojtek's focus on sneering at everyone probably
>does exhibit the use of phatic language when the user is him. I would
>suggest tht language might in fact have originated in phatic conversation,
>which over time would become communicative.
>
>I would argue that it is in fact the most important use of language. Without
>a great deal of phatic language direct relations would atrophjy and you'd
>have no one to communicate with. That is, it is phatic language which
>enables communicative uses.