Accommodation and the idiom principle in English as a Lingua Franca

Abstract

ELF users, in appropriating the language for their purposes, naturally follow what Sinclair calls the idiom principle whereby words are combined in phrases in the interests of effective communication. But in ELF, these phrases are typically co-constructed on line and do not need to correspond to conventional native-speaker idiomatic usage. In this respect there is a primary dependency on the open-choice principle, but this does not preclude adherence to the idiom principle. Online idiomatizing can be seen as a means whereby ELF speakers make use of English as their common communicative resource to accommodate to each other and cooperate by developing pro-tem idiomatic expressions. These phrases serve to facilitate cooperative convergence on shared meaning. However, they also serve to establish rapport, to identify speakers as members of the here-and-now group, and in this respect are also markers of shared territory, expressive of common understanding and attitude. In other words, the co-construction of these pro-tem idiomatic expressions serves not only the cooperative function of communication, but the territorial function of establishing shared affective space.