After critiquing speech act treatment of inviting as either single or cooperative speech act, it is proposed that Chinese invitation is type of discourse that features tripartite structure and embodies dual politeness strategy. It is argued that such a discourse accords to its participants a cultural identity that attends both "a public…

A discussion of approaches to comparative rhetoric looks at diverse approaches and proposes that analysis can be enriched by incorporating the perspective of ethnography of communication. Contributions to the field of comparative rhetoric from second language learning and teaching mainstream rhetoric, and text linguistics are discussed, focusing…

There are certain pre-coded (formulaic) utterances conventionally triggered by certain communication situations, and their use is expected and deemed appropriate because they are seen as part of everyday politeness formulas. Lack of an English equivalent indicates cultural differences governing their use. Some routines are taught explicitly and…