A DIACHRONIC ANALYSIS OF SMALL TALK AND PHATIC UNITS IN ENGLISH: BASED ON WRITTEN SOURCES

Abstract

The diachronic study of small talk and phatic units in English begins with the Old English (OE) period — from approximately AD 450 to 1100. The principal written source of this period is the epic poem Beowulf,¹ composed between the 8th and 11th centuries AD and preserved in a single manuscript (Cotton Vitellius A.xv, c. 1000). As A.H. Jucker (2011)² notes, Old English greeting formulae fall into two main categories: attention-getting expressions and health-wishing formulae — both of which constitute the core of small talk.