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‘Salut! Ça va? Vous avez passé un bon weekend?’1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Bert Peeters
Bert Peeters
Affiliation:
School of English & European Languages & Literatures, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-82, Hobart TAS 7001, [email protected]
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Abstract

Using Wierzbicka's natural semantic metalanguage, this paper sets out to show the pragmatic differences between ‘health enquiries’ and ‘weekend routines’ in French and (Australian) English. In French, except in rare cases, ‘health enquiries’ and ‘weekend routines’ must be introduced by means of a greeting of some sort. In (Australian) English, they may take the place of conventional greeting behaviour. Phaticity in the case of the English phrases is considerably higher than in the case of the French phrases, which, in the context of an intercultural encounter, may result in pragmalinguistic and/or sociopragmatic failure.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , September 1999 , pp. 239 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

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