Mitigation and politeness in Greek invitation refusals: Effects of length of residence in the target community and intensity of interaction on non-native speakers’ performance

This paper investigates the politeness strategies and mitigation devices used by native and non-native speakers (advanced learners) of Greek when refusing an invitation from an intimate and their consequences for the expression of politeness. Furthermore, it examines whether length of residence or intensity of interaction with native speakers affect non-native speakers’ performance. The data are drawn from role plays performed by native speakers and non-native speakers of two different groups: one with extended length of residence but limited opportunities for social interaction with native speakers and one with less extended length of residence but considerably more frequent opportunities for social interaction. On the basis of these data, it is argued that with regard to the speech act of declining an invitation from a friend, length of residence can be an insufficient measure whereas intensity of interaction can guarantee better results as regards pragmatic appropriateness and politeness. The significant deviations observed between native speakers and non-native speakers with limited opportunities for intimate interaction are attributed to the fact that the latter being economic migrants, who suffer from social seclusion, cannot rely on length of residence alone, in order to acquire sociocultural norms and develop pragmatic ability in the use of speech acts like the one investigated here. This fact combined with the finding that both groups of non-native speakers displayed an underdeveloped pragmatic ability in relation to mitigation devices, such as lexical/phrasal downgraders highlights the need for pedagogical intervention which aims at providing learners with metapragmatic information and meaningful opportunities for interaction that may promote their pragmatic development.