Verbal greetings and leave-taking formulae across time and situational settings

This contribution proposes a survey of the development of the socio-linguistically constrained sub-system of verbal greetings and leave-taking formulae in British English conversations across time. By ‘sub-system’ I mean the range of expressions usually associated with furthering the interpersonal function rather than the transactional one. The general objective is the analysis of the dynamic interaction of external (social) and internal (linguistic) factors responsible for variations in the form-function pairs of such expressions since the Early Modern English period onwards. First, I define the object of investigation, research hypotheses and questions in more detail, together with the main tenets of the theoretical framework I refer to and the sources of evidence for the analysis. Then, I focus both on an overview of relevant data across time and on a more specific case study, i.e. cheers as a leave-taking formula. The work ends with a discussion of findings and some tentative generalisations, followed by concluding remarks.