> I pronounce Wojtek King of England. he is now King of England!
>
> <>[WS:] Phatic function of speech denotes acts of speech that perform
> <> certain social tasks instead of - or rather in addition to - conveying
> <> information. For example, if an officiant says "I pronounce you man
> <> and wife" his act of speech performs phatic function of changing the
> <> social standing of the parties - they are now officially married - as
> <> well as conveys information about the new status.
Woj seems to have confused phatic with performative utterance, at least as these are most commonly used. (Either that or he's working on a theory to revolutionise the field.) "I hereby pronounce you X" is performative. Trivial social exchanges are phatic speech - basically social lubricant, a reflexive attempt at managing the anxiety associated with encountering another language-using primate of nevertheless uncertain self-consciousness and opaque intention.
"Phatic modes of speech... proliferate when coherence is wanting." - Verna MacDonald Brown on phatic speech in Beckett's plays