Research in cross-cultural pragmatics has shown how language use is influenced by culture and sociopragmatic factors, since it is not only a matter of choosing among the linguistic resources available, but also of knowing how to make the best use of such resources according to the context. In making such choices perceptions of sociopragmatic variables, such as the relationship between interactants, of related rights and responsibilities (Spencer-Oatey 2008; Spencer-Oatey and Kádár 2021) and of connected expectations of compliance (Márquez Reiter et al. 2005) play an important role. In turn, these perceptions and related understandings of context are underpinned by culturally-loaded underlying values (e.g. solidarity or non-imposition) and beliefs, which consequently impact on speakers’ evaluation of own and others’ linguistic choices. All this means that linguistic choices, perceptions of context and reasons behind them can vary across lingua-cultures (e.g. House and Kádár 2021; Spencer-Oatey and Kádár 2016), and that a same linguistic behaviour or situation can be perceived and evaluated differently across different lingua-cultures.

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