Small talk
informal conversation
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. In essence, it is polite and standard conversation about unimportant things.
Small talk consists of three main parts: a greeting, conversation, and a closing. Small talk is vital in maintaining social cohesion. The topics used in small talk are important to create a social environment that feels neutral and safe.
The phenomenon of small talk was initially studied in 1923 by Bronisław Malinowski in his essay "The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages", who coined the term "phatic communication" to describe it. Phatic communication, or small talk, is not used to exchange important information; instead it is used to build and maintain interpersonal relationships. The ability to conduct small talk is a social skill.
There are differences in small talk between genders. Women use compliments as a form of friendly phatic communion, while men use joking as a way of connecting through small talk.
The public source identifies “Small talk” as informal conversation. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Small, talk and informal.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1335220. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1923.
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This entry incorporates text from “Small talk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.