Phatic expression

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A phatic expression is speech used for social or emotive purposes rather than for communicating information. Phatic expressions are not about the literal meaning of the words but rather about the implied nonverbal subtext.

A lot of allistic communication is phatic in nature. The tendency of autistic people to take things literally is one of the many reasons for frequent misunderstandings between those two neurotypes.

See also

• Literal interpretation
• Responding to "How are you?"