论英语会话中的应酬语.doc

On the Phatic Communion in English Conversation Abstract: The phatic communion plays a very important role in English conversation. It can help us to communicate with others. The phatic communion include verbal communication and nonverbal communication. The division of phatic communion is wide and flexible. The phatic communion can be used in the beginning ,in the middle, or at the end of the conversation. And it can also make up the whole dialogue. The phatic communion is one of the criteria to judge somebodys ability of communication. It is important for us to learn more phatic communion to establish and maintain social contact.Key words: phatic communion; English conversation; dialogue 论英语会话中的应酬语内容摘要：应酬语在英语会话中扮演着重要的角色。它能够让我们和其他人进行交际。应酬语包括语言交际和非语言交际。应酬语的分布很广，也很灵活。应酬语可以用于会话的开始、中间和结尾。它也可以组成整段对话。应酬语还是衡量某人交际能力的标准之一。对我们而言，学习更多的应酬语是非常重要的，这样我们才能建立并保持社会接触。关键词：应酬语；英语会话；对话When we talk about phatic communion, we will naturally think of B.Malinowski. In the early 20th, the world famous social anthropologist sailed to the southwest Pacific Islands and lived there for two years in order to study the social change and cultural practices. He and the local residents slept in the same tents and ate the same food.Through his investigation, he found that the communication between people was not always to provide and obtain certain information. Some communication is only for the purpose of establishing and maintaining social contact. In his paper entitled The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages, he called such kind of communication phatic communion .This term was quickly accepted by the academic language circle. And this kind of communication has become the content studied by linguistics, especially social linguistics, functional linguistics and discourse analysis.Strictly speaking, the phatic communion include two aspects: verbal communication and nonverbal communication. When people carry out social contact, they do not necessarily have to use language means. Sometimes, nodding, smile, embrace can also achieve the desired results. However, linguists should focus on verbal communication.Generally speaking, the phatic communion refers to a general sense of the language, instead of the body language that establishing and maintaining social contact.As we all know the phatic communion plays a very important role in English conversation. It can help us to have social intercourse with others. Naturally, it often appears in the conversation rather than monologue.Sometimes people will go to the point straightly when they begin their communication. But in daily life, it is more often for people to say some digressions before the main topic. In order to create a good atmosphere, the speaker will arrange the phatic communion in the beginning of conversation, such as “Hello”, “How are you”, “Well, thank you”, “Nice to meet you”, and so on. Please have a look at the following conversation which is used as example 1:（1） Server: Hello, Mrs Black, howre you?Customer: Well, thank you,can I have uh better have fivetwenty cent stamps please?S: Twenties. (S gets the stamps)S: Thats one dollar.(S hands the stamps to C)(C hands a dollar note to S)S: thanks very much.C: Thank you.Of course, the phatic communion can be used in the middle of the conversation. When people use phatic communion in the middle of their conversation, he or she may want to remind his or her partner of paying more attention to what he says or what she says. Only in this way, they can keep the lines of communication with each other open. If the two speakers dont have a face-to-face conversation (For example: on the phone), one may say something like “Are you listening”. Someone may misunderstand that the sentence “Are you listening” is just to ask whether the listener is still listening or not. But in fact, this sentence only means the speaker wants to show that he or she still has something to say. If the two speakers have a face-to-face conversation, one of them may say something like phatic communion in order to attract his or her partners attention. Please have a look at the following conversation which is used as example 2: (1) Did you hear about what happened me in Ardboe? Well, hear dear,you nivir seen anything like it. There was that big of a crowd. They were shovin and pushin lik, all that, an when got to the edge of the crowd, divil know I knew I was. It was that dark! It was pitch! An there was a line o” buses no miss all down the road. Says I to myself, says I : I ll just walk past them buses till I come till our own.From this example, we can see “Well, hear dear” is used as phatic communion in the middle of the conversation.The phatic communion often appears at the end of the dialogue , such as saying goodbye, showing thanks, or giving wishes. Please look at the last few sentences in the following conversation which is used as example 3:(3)Mr. Angelo: By the way, Mr. Todd, do you need anything from the store? Wed be glad to get anything you need while were shopping. Mr. Todd: No, thanks, but I appreciate the offer. And thanks again for coming over. Mr. Todd: Its a pleasure, sir. Have a good day. Sometimes, the whole components of the dialogue are the phatic communions. When two people have a meeting with each other that happens by chance, they would rush to break up after a few pleasantries because they have something more important to do. This is a common phenomenon in our daily lives. Maybe they will have a very short conversation just like example 4:(4)A: Hi! B: Hi! Sometimes the dialogues may be longer than the example above, but they are all the mutual phatic communions. Lets look at the following example which is used as example 5:(5)Well! the young man said. Well! she said. Well, here we are, he said. Here we are, she said. Arent we? I should say we were, he sail. Eeyop. Here we are. Well! she said. Well! he said. Well. How does it feel to be an old married lady? The speakers in the conversation are newly-married couple. The newly-married couple are very nervous when they stayed together for the first time. They felt a bit shy. To break the silence, they have to find something to talk about. There is no meaningful message at all in such kind of dialogue, and only the phatic communions can be seen.It is a coincidence that the British playwright named H.Pinter has created a dialogue which is made up of phatic communion in his play “The Birthday Party”. Please have a look at example 6 : (6)Meg: Heres your cornflakes. Are they nice? Petey: Very nice. Meg: I thought theyd be nice. (She sits at the table.) You got your paper? Petey: Yes. Meg: Is it good? Petey: Not bad. Meg: What does it say?Petey: Not much. This is a dialogue without any substantive content. Through this kind of meaningless chatting, the play vividly reflects the cold and detached relationship between the families in the play. However, such kind of chatting examples are not rare to be seen in everyday life. Most of the time, this kind of chatting with friends as well as family members adds to the emotional exchanges between colleagues, and plays the role of a social lubricant. In the view of social linguistics, the people who can not say anything about phatic communions will encounter difficulties in social communicating activities. Whether a person can use the phatic communion appropriately or not is one of the criteria to judge his ability of communication. In the analysis of discourse, some phatic communions are very easy to identify, such as “How do you do? Good morning! Thank you! Nice weather, isnt it?”. However, some conversations seem to be the social intercourse as well as exchanging information. When the parents encounter with each other , maybe they will begin to talk about their childrens performance in school . When several women meet by chance, maybe they will start to appreciate the style of clothes or hair with each other. These are common examples. Whether such a statement is phatic communion or not depends on its main purpose is to build and maintain social contacts or not to do so. When a woman sees her female partner wearing a fashionable coat and say : “Really beautiful! Where can I buy?” She may be just to make her female partner happy, or she truly appreciates the coat. If she does not want to buy one, the sentence “Where can I buy?” is just one of phatic communion. If she really likes the coat and wants to buy one, the sentence “Where can I buy?” means she wants to get some information about buying this kind of coat. Sometimes the division of phatic communion is wide and flexible. Some people regard the dialogue which is beyond the