Chapter 1.Introduction: Offers, refusals in postcolonial multilingual societies: New directions
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1.1Pragmatics and research on Postcolonial Englishes
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1.2Theoretical approaches in past research
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1.3Directions in past research
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1.4Pragmatic phenomena studied in past research
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1.4.1Politeness and face
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1.4.2Speech acts or speech events
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1.4.3Naming, address forms and individual and group identity
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1.5Aims and research questions
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1.6Analytical frameworks in this study
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1.6.1Postcolonial pragmatics
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1.6.2World Englishes paradigm
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1.6.3Theory of communicative acts
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1.7The data: Ghana and Cameroon
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1.8Outline of chapters
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Chapter 2.Postcolonial pragmatics: A theoretical framework for postcolonial multilingual societies
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2.1Western pragmatics in non-Western pragmatic phenomena
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2.1.1Interlanguage pragmatics
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2.1.2Intercultural and cross-cultural pragmatics
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2.1.3Historical pragmatics
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2.1.4Variational pragmatics
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2.2.Towards a postcolonial pragmatics
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2.2.1Some defining premises in postcolonial pragmatics
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2.2.2Analytical components relevant to postcolonial pragmatics
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2.2.3Relevance to Cameroon and Ghana
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2.3A brief colonial history of Cameroon and Ghana
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2.3.1Cameroon
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2.3.2Ghana
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Chapter 3.Offers, refusals and professional status
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3.1Communicative act structure: Preparatory, head and supportive acts
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3.1.1Preparatory acts and professional status
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3.1.2Head acts (types) and professional status
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3.1.3Supportive acts and professional status
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3.2Offer utterances: Realisation strategies and pragmatic functions
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3.2.1Preference strategy in offer utterances
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3.2.2Imperative strategy in offer utterances
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3.2.3Execution strategy in offer utterances
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3.2.4Declarative strategy in offer utterances
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3.3Offer refusal utterances: Realisation strategies and pragmatic functions
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3.3.1Impediment strategy in offer refusal utterances
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3.3.2Direct refusal strategy in offer refusal utterances
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3.3.3Preference strategy in offer refusal utterances
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3.3.4Inability strategy in offer refusal utterances
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3.3.5Postponement strategy in offer refusal utterances
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3.4Professional status in offers and offer refusals: Postcolonial pragmatic components
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3.4.1Address forms
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3.4.2Gender
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3.4.3Social status and level of imposition
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3.4.4Religion
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3.4.5Collectivist cultures and in-group norms
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3.5Summary: Professional status between Ghana and Cameroon
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Chapter 4.Offers, refusals and age
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4.1Communicative act structure: Preparatory, head and supportive acts
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4.1.1Preparatory acts and age
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4.1.2Head acts (types) and age
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4.1.3Supportive acts and age
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4.2Offer utterances: Realisation strategies and pragmatic functions
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4.2.1Imperative strategy in offer utterances
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4.2.2Preference strategy in offer utterances
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4.2.3Execution strategy in offer utterances
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4.3Offer refusal utterances: Realisation strategies and pragmatic functions
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4.3.1Preference strategy in offer refusal utterances
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4.3.2Assurance strategy in offer refusal utterances
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4.3.3Direct refusal strategy in offer refusal utterances
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4.3.4Return offer strategy in offer refusal utterances
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4.3.5Impediment strategy in offer refusal utterances
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4.3.6Acceptance strategy in offer refusal utterances
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4.4Age in offers and offer refusals: Postcolonial pragmatic components
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4.4.1Address forms
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4.4.2Religion
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4.4.3Collectivist cultures and social norms
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4.4.4Gender
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4.4.5Code-switching
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4.5.Summary: Age and social and linguistic behaviour between Ghana and Cameroon
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Chapter 5.Offers, refusals and peer equality
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5.1Communicative act structure: Preparatory, head and supportive acts
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5.1.1Preparatory acts and peer equality
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5.1.2Head acts (types) and peer equality
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5.1.3Supportive acts and peer equality
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5.2Offer utterances: Realisation strategies and pragmatic functions
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5.2.1Imperative strategy in offer utterances
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5.2.2Preference strategy in offer utterances
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5.2.3Declarative strategy in offer utterances
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5.2.3Execution strategy in offer utterances
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5.3Offer refusal utterances: Realisation strategies and pragmatic functions
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5.3.1Direct refusal strategy in offer refusal utterances
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5.3.2Impediment strategy in offer refusal utterances
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5.3.3Assurance strategy in offer refusal utterances
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5.4Peer equality in offers and offer refusals: Postcolonial pragmatic components
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5.4.1Address forms
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5.4.2Religion
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5.4.3Collectivist cultures and in-group bonding
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5.4.4Peer equality and imposition
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5.4.5Societal ills and suspicion
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5.4.6Gender
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5.5Summary: Peer equality between Ghana and Cameroon
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Chapter 6.Postcolonial hybrid structures and social interaction
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6.1Language identities and linguistic in-groups
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6.1.1Linguistic identities on ex-colonial languages
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6.1.2Linguistic identities on ethnic languages
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6.1.3Multilingualism and code-switching
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6.1.4Linguistic victimisation and identity opportunism
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6.2Ethnic or tribal in-group relationships
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6.2.1Ethnicity as identity marker
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6.2.2Ethnicity as a target for stereotyping
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6.3Religious belonging
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6.3.1Religion as a (moral) code of conduct
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6.3.2Religion as a target of stigmatisation
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6.3.3Religion as source of protection and healing
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6.3.4Religion as an egalitarian social institution
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6.4Social roles and collectivist expectations
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6.4.1Kinship role expectations
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6.4.2Age role expectations
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6.4.3Occupational and professional role expectations
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6.4.4Gender role expectations
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6.5Summary: Hybrid, hybridising postcolonial systems
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Chapter 7.Conclusion: On offer-refusal communicative acts: General implications for future research
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7.1Major findings and variation across societies
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7.2Postcolonial Pragmatics and future research
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