Discussing Linguistics Issues - Assignment Example

“Phatic Communication” refers to everyday small talk. It may consist of repeatedly and trite phrases. However, it is impossible to live without any phatic communication throughout the day regardless of how clichéd it appears to be. It may be verbal or non-verbal. Verbal communications would include " hi" and "hello", small talk about weather, sports and politics, while non-verbal communications would consist of waving to a friend at the bus stop or ending a business deal with a firm handshake.

In the cyber world, chat rooms are a perfect example of phatic communications. Phatic communications are usually devoid of any facts or figures or useful information, but it helps an individual, to a great extent, to socialize with ease and to remain in touch with one's colleagues, friends, family members without putting any pressure to be informative on him or her (Michael Pollick)Meaning of a word refers to a feature common to all scenarios. That means a word would carrying all meanings, which would be appropriate socially, culturally and also conforms to reality.

However, the true and complete meaning of a word is only understood when used while socializing with other people. However, there is never one meaning of the word. Different people use a word differently, in different situations. "Social Meaning" refers to the meaning of a word that is most commonly used. A word may have many meanings but there might be few or one that is most frequently used by people while communicating and socializing with other people this is the "social meaning" of the word.

(Bloch, Trager,1942)