Phraseology and Culture in English

Idiomaticity in a cultural and activity type perspective
339
(6) hello Jim it’s Colin Good nine one seven four I see and I just wondered 
if I could remind you about my key for this door you said you’d get one for 
me some time (Surrey) 
(7) I just wondered if you knew when the painters are going to be running 
around the all our rooms down here (Surrey) 
(8) 
I ^want to 'learn e:nough !just to 'do . [ts] 'sort/ 
of :simple trans!l\/ations# . 
CG> and I`m ^wondering 'whether 'you . [@:m] - have 
!\any cl/asses# . 
CG> [@:m] . from ^now !\on# - - 
CG> [@:m - ?] ^sort of in the !h\/oliday((s))# - 
(9.3 59: 1182–84) 
(9) 
BT> ^and 'I [wo] ^trying to 'get 'hold of 'Doctor 
:S\/iomond# 
. 
BT> I ^wondered _whether per_haps he 'isn`t !\in 
to_day# 
. 
BT> as I ^haven`t been 'able to 'get an \/answer# . 
BT> ^could you 'ring me and 'let me kn\/ow 'please# . 
BT> ^th/ank 'you# (9.3 46) 
(9.3 46 950–954) 
(10) I just wondered if you’d have time tomorrow em sometime for I don’t 
know what quarter of an hour half an hour just to give her a little chat (Sur-
rey) 
Just to VP gives the reason or justification for the message: 
(11) This is Max Wheeler from the Royal Grammar School. em just to say 
that we’ve been very pleased with Lars and Cornelia this term (Surrey) 
Some conventionalized expressions which can be derived from this stem 
are illustrated in (12) and (13): 
(12) oh Lydia this is Charles Charles Fillmore I hope you had a good Easter 
just to say that to hope that perhaps you’ve well to say that I should be 
coming in on the twenty-four (Surrey) 

---

340
Karin Aijmer 
(13) 
BP> ((^\/1 syll (name)#)) . 
BP> ^two 'four f\/ive# . 
BP> ^seven 'one 'three [\@u]# - 
BP> [@:] ^just to re!pl\/y# . 
BP> ^to Pro:fessor :C\/obley# . 
BP> 
a^bout intercol'legiate :l\/ectures# . 
BP> for ^next !y\/ear# . 
BP> [@:] ^my t/itle . {^/is#}# . 
BP> [@:] ^F/orm# . 
BP> and ^Style in !D\/elamore# - - 
(9-3 42: 899–908) 
Also (14) and (15) use routine expressions in which a stem can be iso-
lated to introduce the topic of the message: 
(14) hello Anne Peter just returning your call if you’d like to ring me (Sur-
rey) 
(15) Hello Celia. It’s Hazel. Just a query about your Kiel students (Surrey) 
In (16) the speaker uses ‘I hope it’s OK if…’ instead of asking a direct 
question which cannot be answered by the other participant (cf. Liddicoat 
1994: 298): 
(16) I hope it’s OK if I come later on this afternoon somewhere between 
half past two and three something like that so I’ll phone you up at that 
time if you could put a little corner aside for me that would be super. (Sur-
rey) 
7.4. Closing the answering machine message 
At the end of the caller’s message we find strategies from face-to-face con-
versation, telephone calls, letter writing and radio communication indicat-
ing the caller’s confusion about the appropriateness of different strategies 
and phrases. In the Surrey material there is less variation than in the LLC 
indicating that conventionalisation has gone further. 
Table 3 lists alternative ways of ending the message in the LLC and the 
Surrey corpus of messages: 

---

Idiomaticity in a cultural and activity type perspective
341
Table 3. Types of conventional closings in the LLC (57 messages) and Surrey 
material (70 messages)
LLC 
SURREY 
thanking (thanks, thank you) 
25 
29
OK (right) + thanking + goodbye 
2 
12 
thanking + goodbye 
10 
15 
thanking + goodbye + thanking 
1 
1 
OK + goodbye
1 
3 
OK + thanks 
1 
1 
reference to the future (see you soon, see you shortly) 
2 
3 
OK + reference to the future 
1 
1 
goodbye 
1 
1 
goodbye + thanks 
1 
1 
apology + goodbye
1 
2 
thanking + well-wish 
1 
1 
looking forward very much to seeing you + good bye
1 
– 
looking forward to hearing from you + thanking 
1 
– 
that’s all + thanking 
1 
– 
that’s all the message 
1 
– 
thank you + end of message
1 
– 
all good wishes + yours ever + (identification) + thanking 1 
– 
hope all is going well
1 
– 
omission 
3 
– 
The paradigm in Table 3 represents the association between a function 
or event (closing a message) and routine phrases for this function. The set 
of items is fairly large. However the link between closing the message and 
a particular phrase can be strong, for example between thanking and closing 
a message. On the other hand, the tie is weak between end of message, and 
the closing of the message since it is not a conventionalized or routinized 
way of ending the message. 
The most characteristic phrase for terminating the message in institu-
tionalised contexts is thanking and thank you+good bye. Closing may also 
be achieved by phrases which are less frequent and less routinized. In (17) 
and (18), thanking has lost its ordinary meaning and is conventionalized as 
a closing signal: 
(17) hello it’s Mrs Brown 32426 thank you (Surrey) 

---

342