L2 Pragmatics: Exploring linguistic, stylistic and pragmatic features of apologies and requests in CMC

This paper uses discourse analysis to investigate the diverse pragmatic strategies that arise in English language learners’ e-mail exchanges. Specifi cally, politeness, requests and apologies are analyzed. The data are taken from a series of six e-mail exchanges between native Quebecois speakers enrolled in an English language course as well as e-mails to their instructor. E-mail interaction is considered to lie somewhere between written and spoken discourse and therefore is a particularly interesting resource for understanding how language learners negotiate between levels of linguistic, stylistic and pragmatic appropriateness in producing their messages. The analyses show that language learners use a number of techniques to express politeness, make requests and apologize which demonstrate a range of perspectives regarding what is considered appropriate in time and (cyber) space