The Relevance Theory View of Phatic Communication

In this book, I will discuss ‘Phatic Communion’ or what is also called ‘Phatic Communication’, from the point of view of Relevance Theory. It has been thought that Phatic Communion is problematic for Relevance Theory; however, Žegarac and Clark argue that this is not the case. They believe that “the notion of Phatic can be best understood within the framework of Relevance Theory” (Žegarac & Clark, 1999: 321). I will look at some literature written on this issue. Then, I will define the terms phatic, relevance theory and explain the relationship between them based on the literature. The data will be examples of my own which I have personally encountered. Then, I will look at Relevance Theory and Politeness in order to explore Politeness as an aspect of phatic communication. By the end of this paper, I expect to support Žegarac & Clark’s point of view towards the relation of these two phenomena.