"This study offers a pragmatic dimension to World Englishes research. It is particularly timely because pragmatics has generally been understudied in past research on World Englishes, especially postcolonial Englishes. Apart from drawing attention to the paucity of research, the book also contributes to theory formation on the emerging theoretical framework, postcolonial pragmatics, which is then applied to data from two World (postcolonial) Englishes, Ghanaian and Cameroon Englishes. The copious examples used clearly illustrate how postcolonial societies realise various pragmatic phenomena, in this case offers and offer refusals, and how these could be fruitfully explained using an analytical framework designed on the complex internal set ups of these societies. For research on social interaction in these societies to be representative, it has to take into account the complex history of their evolution, contact with other systems during colonialism, and the heritages thereof. This book does just that"--.

• Offers and Offer Refusals
• Editorial page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication page
• Table of contents
• Preface
• List of tables
• List of figures
• List of abbreviations
• Chapter 1. Introduction: Offers, refusals in postcolonial multilingual societies: New research directions
  • 1.1 Pragmatics and research on Postcolonial Englishes
  • 1.2 Theoretical approaches in past research
  • 1.3 Directions in past research
  • 1.4 Pragmatic phenomena studied in past research
    • 1.4.1 Politeness and face
    • 1.4.2 Speech acts or speech events
    • 1.4.3 Naming, address forms and individual and group identity
  • 1.5 Aims and research questions
  • 1.6 Analytical frameworks in this study
    • 1.6.1 Postcolonial pragmatics
    • 1.6.2 World Englishes paradigm
    • 1.6.3 Theory of communicative acts
  • 1.7 The data: Ghana and Cameroon
  • 1.8 Outline of chapters
• Chapter 2. Postcolonial pragmatics: A theoretical framework for postcolonial multilingual societies
  • 2.1 Western pragmatics in non-Western pragmatic phenomena
    • 2.1.1 Interlanguage pragmatics
    • 2.1.2 Intercultural and cross-cultural pragmatics
    • 2.1.3 Historical pragmatics
    • 2.1.4 Variational pragmatics
  • 2.2 Towards a postcolonial pragmatics
    • 2.2.1 Some defining premises in postcolonial pragmatics
    • 2.2.2 Analytical components relevant to postcolonial pragmatics
      • a. History
      • b. Age
      • c. Ethnicity
      • d. Kinship
      • e. Linguistic background: Indigenous vs. official language, etc.
      • f. Religion
      • g. Identity: Multiple identities
      • h. Social class or status
      • i. Culture: Cultural laws and expectations
      • j. Gender
    • 2.2.3 Relevance to Cameroon and Ghana
  • 2.3 A brief colonial history of Cameroon and Ghana
    • 2.3.1 Cameroon
    • 2.3.2 Ghana
• Chapter 3. Offers, refusals and professional status
  • 3.1 Communicative act structure: Preparatory, head and supportive acts
    • 3.1.1 Preparatory acts and professional status
      • a. Greetings
      • b. Familiarisation
      • c. Grounders
    • 3.1.2 Head acts (types) and professional status
      • a. Simple head acts: Simple offer head act = Simple refusal head act
      • b. Mixed head acts: Simple offer head = Complex refusal head and vice versa
      • c. Complex head acts: Complex offer head act = Complex refusal head act
    • 3.1.3 Supportive acts and professional status
      • a. Insistence act: Offer or offer refusal insistence
      • b. Explication act: Refusal questioning and refusal explication
      • c. Refusal acceptance act: Letting the offeree off the hook
      • d. Postponement act: Offer or acceptance postponement
      • e. Promise act: Of acceptance
      • f. Alternative offer act: Offering something else
      • g. Closing act: On a cooperative note
  • 3.2 Offer utterances: Realisation strategies and pragmatic functions
    • 3.2.1 Preference strategy in offer utterances
      • a. Question offeree preference
      • b. Question offeree interest
      • c. Question offeree (future) action
      • d. Question offeree choice
      • e. Suggestory formula
    • 3.2.2 Imperative strategy in offer utterances
      • a. Offeree imperative or action
      • b. Third-party imperative or action
      • c. State offerer permission
      • d. Offer deictic
      • e. State offeree invitation
    • 3.2.3 Execution strategy in offer utterances
      • a. Question offeree ability
      • b. Question offerer ability
      • c. State offerer desire
      • d. Request offeree permission
      • e. Offerer-offeree (future) action
      • f. Offerer accomplished action
    • 3.2.4 Declarative strategy
  • 3.3 Offer refusal utterances: Realisation strategies and pragmatic functions
    • 3.3.1 Impediment strategy in offer refusal utterances
    • 3.3.2 Direct refusal strategy in offer refusal utterances
    • 3.3.3 Preference strategy in offer refusal utterances
    • 3.3.4 Inability strategy in offer refusal utterances
    • 3.3.5 Postponement strategy in offer refusal utterances
  • 3.4 Professional status in offers and offer refusals: Postcolonial pragmatic components
    • 3.4.1 Address forms
      • a. Honorifics
      • b. Attention getters
      • c. Name: Surname and first name
      • d. Endearment terms
      • e. Camaraderie or friendship terms
      • f. Kinship terms
    • 3.4.2 Gender
    • 3.4.3 Social status and level of imposition
    • 3.4.4 Religion
    • 3.4.5 Collectivist cultures and in-group norms
  • 3.5 Summary: Professional status between Ghana and Cameroon
• Chapter 4. Offers, refusals and age
  • 4.1 Communicative act structure: Preparatory, head and supportive acts
    • 4.1.1 Preparatory acts and age
      • a. Greetings
    • 4.1.2 Head acts (types) and age
      • a. Simple head acts: Simple offer head act = Simple refusal head act
      • b. Mixed head acts: Simple offer head act = Complex refusal head act and vice versa
      • c. Complex head acts: Complex offer head act = Complex refusal head act
    • 4.1.3 Supportive acts and age
      • a. Insistence act: Offer and offer refusal insistence
      • b. Justification act: Justifying offers and offer refusals
      • c. Explication act: Refusal questioning and refusal explication
      • d. Deferral act: Offer remains open
      • e. Solidarity act: If you don’t, then I won’t too
      • f. Refusal acceptance act: Letting offeree off the hook
      • g. Offer acceptance act: I accept it, thanks
      • h. Compliment act: You are so respectful
  • 4.2 Offer utterances: Realisation strategies and pragmatic functions
    • 4.2.1 Imperative strategy in offer utterances
      • a. Offeree imperative or action
      • b. State offerer permission
      • c. Offer deictic
    • 4.2.2 Preference strategy in offer utterances
      • a. Question offeree preference
      • b. Question offeree (future) action
    • 4.2.3 Execution strategy in offer utterances
      • a. Question offeree ability
      • b. Question offerer ability
      • c. State offerer tolerance
  • 4.3 Offer refusal utterances: Realisation strategies and pragmatic functions
    • 4.3.1 Preference strategy in offer refusal utterances
    • 4.3.2 Assurance strategy in offer refusal utterances
    • 4.3.3 Direct refusal strategy in offer refusal utterances
    • 4.3.4 Return offer strategy in offer refusal utterances
    • 4.3.5 Impediment strategy in offer refusal utterances
    • 4.3.6 Acceptance strategy in offer refusal utterances
  • 4.4 Age in offers and refusals: Postcolonial pragmatic components
    • 4.4.1 Address forms
      • a. Kinship terms
      • b. Honorifics
      • c. Endearment terms
      • d. Attention getters
    • 4.4.2 Religion
    • 4.4.3 Collectivist cultures and social norms
    • 4.4.4 Gender
    • 4.4.5 Code-switching
  • 4.5 Summary: Age and social and linguistic behaviour between Ghana and Cameroon
• Chapter 5. Offers, refusals and peer equality
  • 5.1 Communicative act structure: Preparatory, head and supportive acts
    • 5.1.1 Preparatory acts and peer equality
      • a. Greetings
      • b. Familiarisation
      • c. Introduction
    • 5.1.2 Head acts (types) and peer equality
      • a. Simple head acts: Simple offer head act = Simple refusal head act
      • b. Mixed head acts: Simple offer head act = Complex refusal head act and vice versa
      • c. Complex head acts: Complex offer head act = Complex refusal head act
    • 5.1.3 Supportive acts and peer equality
      • a. Insistence act: Offer and offer refusal insistence
      • b. Explication act: Refusal questioning and refusal explication
      • c. Alternative offer act: Offering something else
      • d. Deferral act: Offer remains open
      • e. Refusal acceptance act: Letting offeree off the hook
      • f. Offer acceptance act: I accept it, thanks
  • 5.2 Offer utterances: Realisation strategies and pragmatic functions
    • 5.2.1 Imperative strategy in offer utterances
      • a. Offeree imperative or action
      • b. State offerer permission
      • c. Offer deictic
      • d. State offeree invitation
    • 5.2.2 Preference strategy in offer utterances
      • a. Question offeree preference
      • b. Question offeree interest
      • c. Question offeree (future) action
      • d. Question offeree need
    • 5.2.3 Declarative strategy in offer utterances
      • a. State offeree invitation (passive)
      • b. State offerer progressive action
      • c. State offered item
      • d. State offerer possession
    • 5.2.4 Execution strategy in offer utterances
      • a. Question offeree ability
      • b. Question offerer ability
      • c. State offerer desire
      • d. Offerer-offeree (future) action
  • 5.3 Offer refusal utterances: Realisation strategies and pragmatic functions
    • 5.3.1 Direct refusal strategy in offer refusal utterances
    • 5.3.2 Impediment strategy in offer refusal utterances
    • 5.3.3 Assurance strategy in offer refusal utterances
  • 5.4 Peer equality in offers and refusals: Postcolonial pragmatic components
    • 5.4.1 Address forms
      • a. Camaraderie and friendship terms
      • b. Names: First name and surname
      • c. Endearment terms
      • d. Kinship terms
      • e. Attention getters
      • f. Honorifics
    • 5.4.2 Religion
    • 5.4.3 Collectivist cultures and in-group bonding
    • 5.4.4 Peer equality and imposition
    • 5.4.5 Societal ills and suspicion
    • 5.4.6 Gender
  • 5.5 Summary: Peer equality between Ghana and Cameroon
• Chapter 6. Postcolonial hybrid structures and social interaction
  • 6.1 Language identities and linguistic in-groups
    • 6.1.1 Linguistic identities on ex-colonial languages
    • 6.1.2 Linguistic identities on ethnic languages
    • 6.1.3 Multilingualism and code-switching
    • 6.1.4 Linguistic victimisation and identity opportunism
  • 6.2 Ethnic or tribal in-group relationships
    • 6.2.1 Ethnicity as identity marker
    • 6.2.2 Ethnicity as a target for stereotyping
  • 6.3 Religious belonging
    • 6.3.1 Religion as a (moral) code of conduct
    • 6.3.2 Religion as a target of stigmatisation
    • 6.3.3 Religion as source of protection and healing
    • 6.3.4 Religion as an egalitarian social institution
  • 6.4 Social roles and collectivist expectations
    • 6.4.1 Kinship role expectations
    • 6.4.2 Age role expectations
    • 6.4.3 Occupational and professional role expectations
    • 6.4.4 Gender role expectations
  • 6.5 Summary: Hybrid, hybridising postcolonial systems
• Chapter 7. Conclusion: On offer-refusal communicative acts: General implications for future research
  • 7.1 Major findings and variation across societies
  • 7.2 Postcolonial pragmatics and future research
• References
• Appendix 1. Discourse Completion Task Questionnaire
• Appendix 2. Offer vertical structures in offer situation 1
• Appendix 3. Offer vertical structures in offer situation 2
• Appendix 4. Offer vertical structure in offer situation 3
• Appendix 5. Positions of offer head acts in communicative acts
• Name index
• Subject index