Notes on the lnterlanguage of Comity

Abstract

Abstract I take it that interlanguage pragmatics is concerned with the means by which goals are (or are not) achieved in contexts of spoken or written discourse where one or more of the participants is a nonnative speaker-what I shall term, for ease of reference, NNS discourse. As well as having descriptive and explanatory objectives-attempting to categorize and account for uses of discourse strategies that contrast qualitatively or quantitatively with those employed in contexts with exclusively native speaker participants (NS discourse)-it may also have pedagogic ones, aiming to facilitate learners’ achievement of their goals in interaction. Whichever objective is primary, we must ask what kinds of goals need to be achieved, and what constraints on their achievement distinguish NNS from NS discourse. In so doing it seems important to consider not just the constraints relevant to the achievement of goals of communicating information but also those relevant to achieving those social goals of interpersonal rapport that dominate much of our everyday talk.