as part of their worldbuilding. In A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, the people of Essos use the expression Valar Morghulis ('All men must die'), answered with Valar Dohaeris ('All men must serve'). In the Star Wars series, "May the Force be with you" is used as a leave-taking phrase. In Star Trek, the expression "live long and prosper" is used phatically, accompanied by a Vulcan salute. Non-verbal phatic expressions Non-verbal phatic expressions are used in nonverbal communication for emphasis or to add detail to the message that a person conveys or expresses. Common examples of these are smiling, gesturing, waving, etc. According to Dr. Carola Surkamp, professor at University of Cologne, non-verbal phatic communication can be expressed with involuntary physical features such as direction of gaze, blushing, posture, etc. and that these have a vital function in regulating conversation. Online phatic expressions Phatic expressions are used on different communication platforms on the internet such as social media networks where certain platforms require and prompt certain actions to be made between users to communicate or implicate certain messages between people without direct utterances. Examples for this would be: 'likes', comments/replies, shares/reblogs, emoji use, etc. These phatic posts as Radovanovic and Ragnedda like to call them, are again used with a social function of social communicative upkeep with the primary function of expressing social connection, relationships between users, and recognition of coparticipants. See also Backchannel (linguistics) Filler (linguistics) Literal and figurative language Pragmatics (linguistics) Small talk Sociolinguistics References Anthropology Pragmatics