Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T06:43:13.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

‘Hello, we're outrageously punctual’: Front door rituals between friends in Australia and France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2010

CHRISTINE BÉAL*
Affiliation:
Praxiling Université Montpellier 3 et ICAR, Université Lumière Lyon 2
VÉRONIQUE TRAVERSO*
Affiliation:
Praxiling Université Montpellier 3 et ICAR, Université Lumière Lyon 2
*
Address for correspondence: Christine Béal, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier III, Route de Mende, 34199 Montpellier CEDEX 5, France e-mail: [email protected]
Address for correspondence: Véronique Traverso, ICAR, ENS-LSH, 15, Parvis René Descartes, 69007 Lyon, France e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative analysis of Australian and French social visits between friends from an interactional perspective. The study focuses on the first few exchanges that take place as the guests come face to face with their host and are ushered in across the threshold and shows similarities, but also significant differences, in the three main elements that are regularly used in these ‘crossing the threshold’ exchanges: greetings, miscellaneous comments (on setting, arrival time, etc), and laughter.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aston, G. (ed.) (1988). Negotiating Service. Bologna: CLUEB.Google Scholar
Bailey, B. (1997). Communication of respect in interethnic service encounters. Language in Society, 26: 327356.Google Scholar
Béal, C. (1992).“Did you have a good weekend?” Why there is no such thing as a simple question in cross-cultural encounters. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 15, 1: 2352.Google Scholar
Béal, C. (1993). Les stratégies conversationnelles en français et en anglais: Conventions ou reflet de divergences culturelles profondes? Langue française, 98: 79106.Google Scholar
Béal, C. (1998). Keeping the peace: A cross-cultural comparison of questions and requests in Australian English and French (first published in Multilingua). In: Trudgill, P. and Cheshire, J. (eds), The Sociolinguistics Reader Vol. 1. London: Edward Arnold, pp. 524.Google Scholar
Béal, C. (1999). Hypocrisie ou arrogance? Les modèles théoriques de la politesse peuvent-ils rendre compte des malentendus interculturels? In: Bres, J., Delamotte-Legrand, R., Madray-Lesigne, F., Siblot, P. (eds), L'Autre en discours. Montpellier, pp. 397424.Google Scholar
Béal, C. (2000). Les interactions verbales interculturelles: quel corpus, quelle méthodologie? In: Traverso, V. (ed.) 2000a, pp. 13–32.Google Scholar
Béal, C. (2002). Repenser les lignes de démarcation entre langue, discours, culture à la lumière des approches interculturelles. Cahiers de Praxématique, 38: 1126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, P., Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness. Some Universals in Language Usage, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cheng, W. (2005). Intercultural Conversation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Firth, R. (1972). Verbal and bodily rituals of greeting and parting. In: Fontaine, J.S. La (ed), The Interpretation of Ritual. London: Tavistock Publications, pp. 137.Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1973). La mise en scène de la vie quotidienne, T.2. Paris: Minuit.Google Scholar
Glenn, P. (2003). Laughing in Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, J. (1990). Apologies in New Zealand English. Language in Society, 19, 2: 155199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hymes, D. (1972). Models of the interaction of language and social life. In Hymes, D. and Gumperz, J. (eds), Directions in Sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston INC., pp. 3572.Google Scholar
Jefferson, G. (1979). A technique for inviting laughter and its subsequent acceptance/declination. In: Psathas, G. (ed.), pp. 79–96.Google Scholar
Kallmeyer, W., Keim, I. (2002). Linguistic variation and the construction of social identity in a German-Turkish setting. In: Androutsopoulos, J. and Georgakopoulou, A. (eds), Discourse Constructions of Youth Identities. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 2946.Google Scholar
Katsiki, S. (2002). Politesse linguistique et communication interculturelle: le vœu en français et en grec. In: Kerbrat-Orecchioni, C. et Traverso, V. (eds), http://www.unige.ch/fapse/SSE/groups/aric/Actes.htm#TGoogle Scholar
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, C. (1994). Les interactions verbales, tIII. Paris: Armand Colin.Google Scholar
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, C. (2005). Le discours en interaction. Paris: Armand Colin.Google Scholar
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, C., Traverso, V. (2004). Types d'interaction et genres de l'oral. Langages, 153: 4151.Google Scholar
Laver, J. (1981). Linguistic routines and politeness in greeting and parting. In: Coulmas, F. (ed.), Conversational Routines. La Haye, Paris, New York: Mouton, pp. 289304.Google Scholar
Levinson, S. (1992). Activity type and language. In: Drew, P. and Heritage, J.. (eds), Talk at work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66101.Google Scholar
Moerman, M. (1996). The field of analysing foreign language conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 26: 147158.Google Scholar
Olshtain, E. (1989). Apologies across languages. In: Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., Kasper, G. (eds), Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies, Norwood: Ablex, pp. 155174.Google Scholar
Peeters, B. (1999). ‘Salut ! Ça va? Vous avez passé un bon week-end?’. Journal of French Language Studies, 9: 239257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Psathas, G. (ed.) (1979). Everyday Language: Studies in Ethnomethodology. New York, NY: Irvington Publishers.Google Scholar
Schegloff, E. (1968). Sequencing in conversational openings. American Anthropologist, 70: 10751095.Google Scholar
Schegloff, E. (1979). Identification in telephone conversation openings. In Psathas, G. (ed.), pp. 23–77.Google Scholar
Tannen, D. (1981). The machine-gun question: an example of conversational style. Journal of Pragmatics, 5: 383397.Google Scholar
Tannen, D. (1984). Conversation Style. Analysing Talk among Friends. Norwood: Ablex.Google Scholar
Traverso, V. (1996). La conversation familière. Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon.Google Scholar
Traverso, V. (éd.) (2000a). Perspectives interculturelles sur l'interaction. Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon.Google Scholar
Traverso, V. (2000b). Autour de la mise en oeuvre d'une comparaison interculturelle. L'exemple des actes confirmatifs dans des émission radiophoniques françaises et syriennes. In: Traverso, V. (ed.), pp. 33–53.Google Scholar
Traverso, V. (2006a). Des échanges ordinaires à Damas. Damas/Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon/Publications de l'IFPO.Google Scholar
Traverso, V. (2006b). Repères pour la comparaison d'interactions dans une perspective interculturelle. Carnets du Cediscor, 9: 1955.Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. (1986). Does language reflect culture? Evidence from Australian English. Language in Society, 15, 349374.Google Scholar