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Pragmaticsandlearningaforeignlanguage
43
placeoccasionsrequiringspeechactivity”(Wierzbickaibid.).Theyusually
rangefromHasetofrigidformulaetoasetofconversationalprescriptions,
whichmaybeflledinavarietyofacceptablefashions”(Herbert1991:382).
Conventionalizedexpressions12tiedupwithsituationsarelabeledHsitua-
tion-boundutterances”(SBU;Kecskés2000,Mey2004).Othertermsusedare:
prefabricatedexpressions(prefabs),formulaicexpressions,verbalroutines
(Coulmas1981a,b),gambits13(Keller1981),orformulaicsequences(Wray
2002),tonamebutafew.TheyareHhighlyconventionalizedprepatterned
expressionswhoseoccurrenceistiedtomoreorlessstandardizedcommuni-
cationsituations”(Coulmas1981a:2-3),andwhichsupportsocialinteraction.
Thisiswhytheybearapragmaticcharacter.Theyhavealsobeenclassifedby
Watts(2003)asmarkersofpoliteness1.
Phrasesutteredwhenpeoplecomplimenteachothercanserveasasub-
stantiationofSBUs.ResearchfndingsoncomplimentsinAmericanEnglish
publishedbyManesandWolfson(1981),inSouthAfricanandNewZealand
EnglishpublishedbyHerbert(1989)andHolmes(1988)respectively,togeth-
erwiththeconclusionsfromthestudyintoPolishcomplimentscarriedout
byHerbert(1991),indicatethatcomplimentsHarehighlystructuredformulae
whichcanbeadaptedwithminimalefforttoawidevarietyofsituationsin
whichafavorablecommentisrequiredordesired”(ManesandWolfson1981:
123).Forexample,two-thirdsofalladjectivalcomplimentswhichManesand
Wolfson(1981:116-117)collected(72differenttypesintotal)madeuseof
onlyfvedifferentadjectives:nice,good,beautiful,pretty,great.Additionally,
therepertoireofverbsinAmericanEnglishcomplimentswaslimitedto:like,
love,admire,enjoyandbeimpressedbyl
Pragmaticroutinesmaytaketheformofmemorized,prepatternedchunks
orevenshorttexts,e.g.,howareyou?,orpatterns,i.e.,Hpartiallyunanalyzed
stretcheswithoneormoreopenslots”,e.g.,Iwouldappreciateif...,Iwonderif
you’dmind...(Barron2003:137).ForthisbookImodalizedexpressions’which
looklikequestionsbutfunctionasrequests(Coulmans1981:7)areofspecial
importance,e.g.,CanI...?,Would/couldyou...?lTherearealsoafewSBUs
amongEnglishrequests,e.g.,Whydon’tyou..?,Howabout...?.Awordofcau-
tionneedstobeaddedatthispoint:itisnotmyintentiontoclaimthatineach
situationsimilarformulaeappearbutratherthatthereareconventional,situ-
12AsummaryoftheideaspresentedintheparagraphsthatfollowcanbefoundinLankie-
wiczetal.(2014b:91-93).
13GambitsconstituteamorerestrictedgroupencompassingunitswhichHservetointroduce
whatthespeakerisabouttosay”ortoHbowoutofaconversation”(Keller1981:94).Assuch
theyveryoftenHsignalthatthestretchofutterancetofollowistobetakeninaparticularman-
ner,forinstanceasanopinion”(Keller1981:97)ortoplacethespeakerandhearerHintocertain
structuralformations”(Keller1981:100;cf.alsoWray2002:8-9).