Literature Review on Phatic Communion

【Abstract】：After Malinowski put forward the concept of phatic， more and more scholars begin to attach attention to the study of phatic communion. Although the quantity of phatic words are few， it plays a very important role in the communication of our daily life. The author will briefly introduce the phatic communion， and will mainly focuses on reviewing and giving some advice to the future researchers.

【Key words】： Phatic communion; Ontological study; Social linguistic; Pragmatic theories; Review and comment

1. Introduction

Phatic communion was first proposed by Malinowski， he found that communication between people is not always for the purpose of providing and having the access to certain information， some of the communication is to establish and maintain social contact. In the paper “The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages”， he defined such communication as phatic communion.

2.Different Aspects of Studies on Phatic Communion

2.1 Ontological Study of Phatic Communion

The ontological study was the first aspect the researchers studied phatic communion. It can be divided into several parts： the origin of the concept; the categorization of phatic communion; phonetic， semantic and grammatical research of phatic communion.

Many scholars （Zhu Yong shen，1989; Liu Changqing，2000; Laver，1981） have contributed to the categorization from different perspectives or abiding by different aspects. These aspects are： 1） distribution in discourse 2） extent of idiomaticity 3） discourse modes 4） interlocutor-oriented angel. some scholars noticed that phatic communion have rising and falling tones， and it concludes inquiring， statement， persuasion and so on. In fact， semantic means the “implication” for phatic communion， so the semantic study of phatic communion is often linked with pragmatic.

2.2 Social Linguistic Study of Phatic Communion

Since human lives in the society， language studies cannot leave out the social factors. social linguistic study of phatic communion has the following characters： national and regional character， object character， and time character. In this sense， it is a wide field for scholars to explore. Scholars can compare phatic words in different countries or different areas; they can compare or observe the phatic words among different kinds of people （vocation， sex， age，etc.）; they can study phatic words in a specific time or compare it in different times. At the same time these characters are the key factors in doing the research， so， researchers should pay attention to it.

2.3 Contrastive Study of Phatic Communion

In different cultures， there are different sets of phatic language. Among the constrative studies of phatic communion， the author find that it can be divided in to three parts： contrastive study of phatic communion between China and other countries; translation of phatic communion in the background of contrastive study; phatic communion study of teaching in Chinese and English. Contrastive study of phatic communion takes a large proportion in all studies of phatic communion. The contrastive study of phatic communion between Japanese and Chinese occupy the majority of all studies on phatic communion. Studies of translation and teaching is very few.

2.4 Pragmatic Explanation of Phatic Communion

Pragmatic explanation of phatic communion means analyzing the phatic communion through some pragmatic theories. Better understanding about phatic communion contribute to using phatic communion more appropriate. People combined cooperative principle with it， combined politeness theory with it， combined relevance theory with it， and there were also some people combined adaptation theory with it. Among all theories， relevance theory was payed much attention by scholars. As a result， scholars who are interested in pragmatic explanation of phatic communion should explore whether other pragmatic theories are also related to phatic communion.

3. Conclusion

After reviewing these studies of phatic communion， we can see a rough tendency of it. Researchers attach importance to the aspects from the ontology of phatic communion to the relationship between social， cultural， and pragmatic interpretation of phatic communion. At present， the pragmatic explanation of phatic communion is very hot. Relevance theory put forward the new topic from the perspectives of cognitive linguistics. They also believe that， with the development of cognitive linguistics and further study of phatic communion， cognitive analysis of phatic communion will become a trend.

References

Guo Pengyue （2013）. The Study of Pragmatic Features of Phatic Communion. Overseas English， （6）， 267-268

Sun Jianzhong （1998）. Phatic Communication between Chinese and Westerners. Theory of Wide Angle， （2）， 54

程瑞蘭（2006）。漢英寒暄語比較研究。洛陽師范學(xué)院學(xué)報，（3），129-131

朱永生（1989）。寒暄語四題。山東外語教學(xué)，（4），26-28