Greek Speakers and Pragmatics

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 October 2025 | Viewed by 875

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Languages and Literature, University of Nicosia, Nicosia 1700, Cyprus
Interests: L2 pragmatics; sociopragmatics; pragmalinguistics; politeness theory; email pragmatics; young learners’ pragmatics; Greek L2 learners’ pragmatics

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Languages and Literature, University of Nicosia, Nicosia 1700, Cyprus
Interests: teacher education and professional development in Greece and Cyprus; pedagogical innovations in TESOL; second language learning in Greece; Cyprus technology-enhanced language learning

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We invite submissions for a Special Issue on pragmatic development with a focus on Greek as an L1 or L2. This Special Issue seeks to broaden research on the pragmatic dimensions of Greek speakers across various learning contexts and proficiency levels. It aims to deepen our understanding of how Greek speakers/learners develop their pragmatic competence, navigate social relationships, express politeness, and manage face in ways that are culturally specific. We also seek to understand how speakers of Greek adapt to the pragmatic norms of their own language, or of other languages, and the influence of cultural values on language use.

We welcome original research articles, including state-of-the-art reviews and systematic analyses, that address themes including, but not limited to, the following:

  • Greek learners of an L2—Contributions examining the pragmatics of Greek-speaking learners of English as an additional language (L2 or lingua franca). Topics of interest include cross-linguistic pragmatic influences, developmental patterns, factors impacting pragmatic development in varied learning contexts, and challenges unique to Greek L2 learners.
  • Learners of Greek as an L2—Studies focusing on the acquisition, usage, and pragmatic competency development of Greek as an additional language. Research exploring pragmatic developmental trajectories and influential factors across educational and social environments is particularly welcome.
  • Greek L1 pragmatics—studies examining children’s pragmatic development in Greek as an L1, and the influence of cultural norms, social dynamics, and contextual factors on language use in Greek, covering a range of areas, such as politeness strategies, speech acts (like requests, apologies, or compliments), conversational implicature, and how meaning changes based on context, relationship between speakers, and communicative goals. Studies examining children’s pragmatic development in Greek as an L1 are particularly welcome.

We encourage submissions on all aspects of pragmatic development, encompassing both performance (how learners produce language in context) and perception (how learners interpret pragmatic meaning), and politeness considerations. From a methodological perspective, we welcome research that investigates instructional strategies, classroom practices, and feedback mechanisms that effectively support pragmatic development in learners. Suitable methodological approaches include experimental studies, corpus analyses, discourse analysis, and conversational analysis. We also value approaches that explore the integration of pragmatics in curriculum design and assessment.

Submission Guidelines:

Abstracts should be approximately 300 words and clearly outline the research objectives, methodology, and anticipated contribution to the field. Please submit abstracts to Kogetsidis.m@unic.ac.cy by 1 February 2025.

We look forward to your contributions to this Special Issue, which aims to deepen our understanding of Greek pragmatics across diverse linguistic contexts.

Prof. Dr. Maria Economidou-Kogetsidis
Dr. Christine Savvidou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Greek
  • pragmatics
  • development
  • performance
  • L2 learners
  • cross-linguistic pragmatic influence

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 336 KiB  
Article
Mitigation, Rapport, and Identity Construction in Workplace Requests
by Spyridoula Bella
Languages 2025, 10(8), 179; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10080179 - 25 Jul 2025
Viewed by 299
Abstract
This study investigates how Greek professionals formulate upward requests and simultaneously manage rapport and workplace identity within hierarchical exchanges. The data comprise 400 written requests elicited through a discourse–completion task from 100 participants, supplemented by follow-up interviews. Integrating pragmatic perspectives on request mitigation [...] Read more.
This study investigates how Greek professionals formulate upward requests and simultaneously manage rapport and workplace identity within hierarchical exchanges. The data comprise 400 written requests elicited through a discourse–completion task from 100 participants, supplemented by follow-up interviews. Integrating pragmatic perspectives on request mitigation with Spencer-Oatey’s Rapport-Management model and a social constructionist perspective on identity, the analysis reveals a distinctive “direct-yet-mitigated” style: syntactically direct head acts (typically want- or need-statements) various mitigating devices. This mitigation enables speakers to preserve superiors’ face, assert entitlement, and invoke shared corporate goals in a single move. Crucially, rapport work is intertwined with identity construction. Strategic oscillation between deference and entitlement projects four recurrent professional personae: the deferential subordinate, the competent and deserving employee, the cooperative team-player, and the rights-aware negotiator. Speakers shift among these personae to calibrate relational distance, demonstrating that rapport management functions not merely as a politeness calculus but as a resource for dynamic identity performance. This study thus bridges micro-pragmatic choices and macro social meanings, showing how linguistic mitigation safeguards interpersonal harmony while scripting desirable workplace selves. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Greek Speakers and Pragmatics)
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