Small talk is an informal type of discourse that does not cover any functional topics of conversation or any transactions that need to be addressed.
Small talk is conversation for its own sake. The phenomenon of small talk was initially studied in 1923 by Bronisław Malinowski, who coined the term "phatic communication" to describe it. The ability to conduct small talk is a social skill; hence, small talk is some type of social communication. Early publications assume networked work positions as suitable for social communication.
Read more about Small Talk: Purpose, Topics, Conversational Patterns, Gender Differences, Cultural Differences, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words small and/or talk:
“The ancestral deed is thought and done,
And in a million Edens fall
A million Adams drowned in darkness,
For small is great and great is small,
And a blind seed all.”
—Edwin Muir (1887–1959)
“All of us, just because we are able to talk, also believe we are able to talk about language.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)