[Anthony-G]

Ironically, given that the discussion is about clarity of language, I had to look up the meaning of “phatic hiatus”; it refers to a pause in conversation. For more on this, see https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/592225/is-the-fo...

[detourdog]

I looked up phatic also. Great word. denoting or relating to language of a general purposes of social interaction.