This paper emerges directly from the ESRC-funded project 'Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication' for which Robert Crawshaw was the Principal Investigator/Project Director. The paper was conceived by him. He was the principal author and was responsible for the final draft. The methodological model employed for the analysis was proposed by the co-author, Dr. Julia Harrison, the Research Assistant on the Project. The data extracts were selected jointly by both authors; the original drafts of the analyses, together with the references, were supplied by the co-author and then revised and re-drafted by the principal author. RAE_import_type : Journal article RAE_uoa_type : European Studies