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Email Pragmatics and Second Language Learners
Edited by Maria Economidou-Kogetsidis, Milica Savić and Nicola Halenko
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 328] 2021
► pp. 129–150

Chapter 5
Phatic communion in Chinese students’ gratitude emails in English

Production and perception

ORCID logo | Beihang University
ORCID logo | Beihang University

This study investigates Chinese students’ production and perception of phatic communion in English gratitude emails to professors. The data were collected in two parts. First, a total of 78 Chinese graduate students were asked to write a thank-you email in English to a professor in a hypothetical academic situation. Their phatic communion strategies were coded and statistically analysed. Second, a separate group of 53 Chinese students were asked about their perceptions of the phatic expressions via questionnaires. The findings are discussed with respect to the preference for phatic communion in Chinese culture, the legitimacy of L1 pragmatics in L2 email communication, and the difficulties of L2 sociopragmatic development in foreign language contexts.

Keywords: phatic communion, gratitude emails, production, perception, pragmatic competence
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Research on email pragmatics
    • 2.2Phatic communion
    • 2.3L2 pragmatic research on gratitude
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Instruments
    • 3.3Data analysis
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Production of phatic communion in gratitude emails
    • 4.2Perception of phatic communion in gratitude emails
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusions
  • References
Published online: 27 October 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.328.05ren
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