“Ciao Prof!” La pragmatica del saluto negli apprendenti di madrelingua tedesca

Abstract

This empirical study investigates the realization of the speech act of greeting, from the perspective of acquisitional interlanguage pragmatics. Using an open questionnaire, it compares the realization of greetings in Italian by native and nonnative (L1: German) speakers with different competence levels (A-B-C), across diverse communicative situations and with a range of interlocutors. Data indicate that for the non-native speakers, the choices of greeting forms increasingly became more native-like at a rate parallel to their overall level of competence in Italian. Comparing the production of native and non-native speakers, similarities emerged with regard to both structure and composition (in direct and indirect greetings): in situations of high formality, of high social distance, and when the interlocutor was of a higher social status, both groups of speakers used highly formulaic greetings; meanwhile, in less formal situations of closer social distance and more equal social status, the structures used were much more complex and varied (even if they are not all represented in the productions of the learners with different levels).