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Formulas, Routines, and Conventional Expressions in Pragmatics Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2012

Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig
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Abstract

This article reviews the recent research on formulaic language in pragmatics from three perspectives: foundational issues, recurrent research questions, and the populations studied. Examination of foundational issues, including definitions and operationalization of the concept of formula in pragmatics, shows the way in which pragmatics understands formulaic language and what it contributes to the study of formulaic language, namely, a strong sense of social contract. Recurrent themes in contemporary investigations include how formulas are used in general and in specific contexts, determining how extensive the use of formulas is, attitudes toward formulas, acquisition of formulas in second language (L2) pragmatics, and formulas in pragmatics pedagogy. The third section reviews pragmatic research according to language community, defined for the purposes of this review as first language (L1; native-speaker communities), L2, cross-cultural comparisons, indigenized varieties, and lingua franca communities. The investigation of formula use by different communities addresses questions of the particular and the universal in formula use and the importance of community and community membership.

Type
SECTION C: SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES ON FORMULAIC LANGUAGE
Information
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , Volume 32 , March 2012 , pp. 206 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bardovi-Harlig, K. (2009). Conventional expressions as a pragmalinguistic resource: Recognition and production of conventional expressions in L2 pragmatics. Language Learning, 59, 755–795.

This cross-sectional investigation of 172 speakers explores the relationship of learners’ familiarity with formulas on an aural recognition task and their production of the same formulas in context in an oral production task.

Culpeper, J. (2010). Conventional impoliteness formula. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 3232–3245.

This article explores the theoretical construct of impoliteness arguing that it is not the inverse of politeness. Culpeper's identification of formulas serves as a model for researchers in its careful documentation of the recurrent pattern, its particular social use, and the frequency of the identified use.

Kecskes, I. (2010). Situation-bound utterances as pragmatics acts. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 2889–2897.

Kecskes's discussion distinguishes pragmatic formulas (which he termed situation-bound utterances) from other familiar formulas.

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