Analysing phatic interaction through speech acts – A discussion note

In this discussion note we explore why and how we need a pragmalinguistic and speech act-anchored approach to systematically study a key pragmatic phenomenon: phatic interaction. By so doing, we aim to draw attention to a special issue which we plan to publish in Acta Linguistica Academica. First, we present a general model through which phatic interaction can be replicably studied across different data types and linguacultures, by breaking it down to speech act types occurring in different slots of an interaction. Second, we provide a case study involving Chinese learners of English as a foreign language, in order to illustrate how the proposed framework can be put to actual use.