Lexico-grammatical variation in the use of REQUEST strategies in Indian and British letters to the editor [Elektronische Ressource] : a cross-cultural pragmatic study / von Nina Offergeld

1 Lexico-Grammatical Variation in the Use of REQUEST Strategies in Indian and British ‘Letters to the Editor’: A Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Study Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktor der Philosophie (Dr. phil.), genehmigt durch die Fakultät für Geistes-, Sozial- und Erziehungswissenschaften der Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg von M.A. Nina Offergeld geb. am 27.12.1975 in Soest/Westf. Gutachterin: Professor Dr. Angelika Bergien (Universität Magdeburg) Gutachter: Professor Dr. Clausdirk Pollner (Universität Leipzig) Eingereicht am: 24.06.2008 Verteidigung der Dissertation am: 22.01.2009 2 Contents 0 Abstract (German) 7 1 Introduction 14 1.0 Preliminary Remarks 14 1.1 Organization of the Thesis 15 1.2 Aims and Main Hypotheses of the Present Study 17 2 Functional Approaches to Variation Studies 20 2.0 Introduction 20 2.1 Systemic Functional Grammar 20 2.2 Metafunctions of Language 23 2.3 Form-Meaning Relationships 25 2.4 Variation Studies 27 3 Cross-Cultural Pragmatics 29 3.0 Introduction 29 3.1 Speech Acts as Semantic-Pragmatic Universals 30 3.2 Cross-Cultural Speech Act Research 33 4 Varieties of English in Postcolonial Settings: India 37 4.0 Overview 37 4.1 The Spread and Diversification of the English Language 37 4.2 From English to Englishes: Terminological and Conceptual Changes 40 4.3 Reference Models for the New Englishes 41 4.