ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 identifies specific pragmatic relational resources that can help bilingual interactants make meaningful and realistic interpersonal and transactional language choices. Building on Halliday's understandings of ideational, interpersonal and textual language functions. I set the theoretical groundwork for a cross-cultural relational pragmatics model by describing its characteristics, flexibility and enabling functions. Focusing on both interpersonal and individual language use, the chapter stresses the need to identify bilingual speakers’ expectations, goals and interpersonal resources available for achieving those goals. An examination of Halliday's language functions underscores an interpersonal communicative dimension that allows interlocutors to express their individualism and personality as they adhere to established target – language patterns and practices. Furthermore, Halliday's ideational, interpersonal and textual functions provide insights into how bilingual speakers meet their expectations and seek out relational achievement. Expectations reflect what bilingual speakers seek to achieve within a particular encounter. Achievement considers how successful interactants were in accomplishing relational goals. The chapter lays the groundwork for a cross-cultural relational pragmatics framework that helps bilingual speakers achieve and celebrate interpersonal goals (Chapter 3), gain legitimacy and status as foreign-language users (Chapter 4), and position themselves to face up to communicative challenges and hurdles (Chapter 5).
