What is a preinvitation?

Definition
	A preinvitation is a presequence that is likely to be understood by the respondent as a signal of a coming invitation. The coming invitation may be a question-answer sequence concerning the availability of the participant to be invited.

Example (English)

The second and third turns of the following exchange are a preinvitation:

A: Hi, John.

B: Say, what’re you doing?

A: Well we’re going out. Why?

B: Oh, I was just gonna say come over here this evening.

Adapted from:

Atkinson and Drew 1979 143, cited by Levinson 1983 346

Concept module: pre-invitation
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): P
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004