Month: October 2010

Oct/Nov 2010 – Phatic Expressions and Failure

In linguistics, a phatic expression is one whose only function is to perform a social task, as opposed to conveying information. The question “how are you?” is usually an automatic component of a social encounter. If you are like most people, either your reply is a quick one-word answer (eg. “not bad” or “good”) or…

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