Passage
The concept of phatic communication debuted in “The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages,” an essay appended to C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards’s classic semiotic study The Meaning of Meaning(1923). Malinowski used the occasion to champion the ethnographic study of indigenous languages, which he believed had been poorly served by philological methods. Fieldwork among the population of the Trobriand Islands, in the South Pacific, had revealed to Malinowski that indigenes relied on language as a “mode of action” rather than, as philology assumed, an “instrument of reflection.” This claim was not intended as a slight. Ethnography, as Malinowski envisaged it, would do justice to indigenous linguistic practices by moving the problem of meaning out of the text and into the world. The method had obvious purchase in contexts where verbal exchanges helped speakers to achieve readily apparent practical ends. In one of the essay’s bravura passages, Malinowski recounts the stages of a group fishing expedition, explaining how an array of utterances was instrumental to the fishermen’s success.
But Malinowski also perceived that something was afoot in the “free, aimless, social intercourse” floating above daytime chores and swirling around the “village fire” at night. To the untrained ear, this verbiage would seem altogether worthless. It didn’t “inform.” It didn’t “connect people in action.” It certainly didn’t “express thought.” Malinowski’s breakthrough was to set aside not only the words’ referential meanings but also his own focus on how language responds to situations. The sheer fact of speaking, he realized, was what mattered. These frivolous utterances created a situation, a warm atmosphere, whose purpose—whose meaning—was sociability itself. In the flow of words, bonds were formed and solidified. Here was “a new type of linguistic use...in which ties of union are created by a mere exchange of words.” Malinowski named it “phatic communion,” drawing on the Greek work for speech, phatos.
Ever the ethnographer, Malinowski noticed when he turned his gaze back to Europe that “modern, civilized” people traded their own stocks of thoughtless pleasantries when making “enquiries about health, comments on the weather, or some supremely obvious state of things.” “Phatic communion,” he reasoned, was a timeless pursuit. Our anthropologist had hit a “bedrock aspect of man’s nature in society”: the fundamental human desire for the “mere presence of others.” In this universalizing move, Malinowski would seem to have paved the way for his concept’s migration into new media. The passage of words over WhatsApp, on this reading, simply extends the purview of Malinowski’s findings.
Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 61
Try yourself:Which of the following best explains the meaning of “phatic communication” as used in the passage?
Explanation
The term phatic communication occurs in the first sentence: “The concept of phatic communication debuted in (the collection of essays called) ’The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages’”. After that, the essay uses the term ‘phatic communion’ rather than phatic communication, and equates both. In other words, the term “phatic communication” is used to refer to “phatic communion”.
The word communion implies an act of sharing, or an intimate fellowship or rapport. “Communion with nature” or “communion with wilderness” brings out the meaning of communion well. Communion is a relationship, rather than verbal communication alone.
We can now see that option 1 is incorrect since the passage never says that phatic communication is meaningless — it is called free, aimless, frivolous and worthless, but not meaningless.
Option 2 is incorrect since the passage does not refer to symbols anywhere.
Option 3 is incorrect since it is incorrect to say that phatic communication creates communion through its frivolity, when, in fact, the passage says that it creates communion despite its frivolity.
Option 4 best captures the meaning of the term phatic communication. It is not in the meaning or content of specific words but in their outcome that the act of speaking itself creates a bond.
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 61
Try yourself:The passage suggests that Malinowski would agree with all of the following as the functions of phatic communication EXCEPT:
Explanation
Option 1 is not an exception. At the end of the first paragraph, to demonstrate the functions of phatic communication, the writer refers to how “Malinowski recounts the stages of a group fishing expedition, explaining how an array of utterances was instrumental to the fishermen’s success.” Option 1 is, thus, a function of phatic communication. Eliminate option 1.
Option 2 can be found in the second paragraph. The word fraternity means: friendship and mutual support within a group. Verbiage, found “floating above daytime chores and swirling around the “village fire” at night,” which might appears worthless to a modern day observer was said to “create a situation… a warm atmosphere … was sociability itself.” Hence option 2 is not an exception. Eliminate option 2.
The last paragraph helps to eliminate option 4. Malinowski observes that the “bedrock aspect of man’s nature … is a desire for the mere presence of others” Option 4 states this idea as ‘catering to the human need for company. So eliminate option 4.
Option 3 is the exception that we are looking for, because fostering shared beliefs involves the communication of ideas and concepts – such a function of phatic communication runs counter to the definition of phatic communication as outlined by Malinowski.
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 61
Try yourself:In the context of the passage, the word “purchase” as used in the first paragraph is the closest in meaning to which of the following?
Explanation
One of the meanings of the word ‘purchase’ when used as noun is “means of applying or increasing power, influence, or advantage”.
The context in which it occurs in the essay makes the meaning amply clear as well. The sentence reads: “The method had obvious purchase in contexts where verbal exchanges helped speakers to achieve readily apparent practical ends. In one of the essay’s bravura passages, Malinowski recounts the stages of a group fishing expedition, explaining how an array of utterances was instrumental to the fishermen’s success.” The word “instrumental” in the next sentence explains the meaning of purchase in the previous sentence.
Options 1, 3 and 4 are the meaning of purchase in its more common use. We can eliminate them easily.
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 61
Try yourself:Based on the passage, it can be inferred that the modern view of language …
Explanation
In the second paragraph, it is mentioned that Malinowski perceived that ’to the untrained ear, this verbiage would seem altogether worthless. It didn’t “inform.” It didn’t “connect people in action.” It certainly didn’t “express thought.”’This “untrained ear” represents the modern view of language, which is clear about what the indigenous language is NOT – it didn’t inform, connect or express thought … Therefore, we can infer that conversely, modern view is regards language as one that informs and connects people in action.
Hence option 1 is correct.
Option 2 is incorrect. Option 2 states the philological approach to the study of language – not necessarily the modern view. Eliminate option 2.
Option 3 is incorrect. The words free and aimless are used in reference to describing indigenous utterances; however, even if it is taken to be indigenes’ view of language, the passage soon goes on to attribute some deep-running purpose to those utterances, thus contradicting the apparent aimlessness. Also, it cannot be inferred that the modern view does not incorporate freedom and aimlessness. Eliminate option 3.
Option 4 is incorrect since Malinowski states that phatic communication was a new type of linguistic use unfamiliar to the modern world; he does not say that modern view is flawed; this option would have been correct if the word ‘limited’ was used instead of ‘flawed’.
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 61
Try yourself:It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes that communication over media, such as WhatsApp,…
Explanation
The concluding sentence of the passage explains that, seen from the point of view of phatic communication, as outlined by Malinowski, the exchange of words over WhatsApp is a manifestation of a fundamental human desire— the desire for the mere presence of others.
Option 1 is incorrect, since there is no ground to infer that the author thinks that communication over WhatsApp is trivial. On the contrary, the author believes that WhatsApp messages fulfill the fundamental human need for company. Eliminate option 1.
Option 2 is incorrect. The author does not go into the details of the functions of media, such as WhatsApp, by comparing them with the functions of phatic communication. So, option 2 is beyond the scope of the passage. Hence eliminate option 2.
Option 4 highlights the ‘frivolousness’ of WhatsApp messages and pleasantries exchanged in civilized societies. The author compares the two only from the point of view of Malinowski’s concept of phatic communication, not with respect to the latter’s frivolousness. It is also similar to option 1. Hence option 4 is incorrect.
Option 3 is correct. The author invokes communication over media like WhatsApp to show how Malinowski’s concept of phatic communication gets universalized through the working of modern media like Whatsapp; they reflect the fundamental human desire for the mere presence of others. It is the author’s belief that new media cater to this core human need.
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