ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly looks at several functions of communication. Small talk, uninspired greetings, and idle chatter are among the descriptions of a fundamental type of communication that Bronislaw Malinowski called phatic communion. Phatic communion is usually the most casual, even careless, form of communication. In one sense, all communication is a process of transmitting some information that is received by another. This is one definition of communication. But as we note the variety of ways in which we can describe the kind and purpose of a message sent, the category of transmitting-recording seems insufficient. The instrumental function of communication is one of its most common purposes. There are statements that are clearly instrumental in their wording, for which the result correlates with the language. Communication in which the message is the emotional feelings of the speaker toward a listener is known as affective communication.
