Exploring the Cooperative Principle in Cross-Cultural Contexts
A Corpus-Based Pragmatic Study of International Students Learning Romanian
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19487455 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gabriel Bărbuleţ (0000-0002-9609-2573, Department of Letters, Faculty of History, Letters and Educational Sciences, “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia, Unirii Street no. 15-17, 510009 Alba Iulia, Romania), Gabriel Dan Barbulet (1 Decembrie 1918 University, corresponding author), Andra Iulia Ursa (0000-0002-2158-4338, 1 Decembrie 1918 University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 29 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Languages (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/languages11020029 |
| OpenAlex | W7128053412 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
This study examines how international students learning Romanian interpret and apply the Cooperative Principle in everyday and academic interaction. The research is grounded in the observation that pragmatic competence often develops unevenly in second-language learning, particularly in multilingual environments where learners rely on norms carried over from their first language. To investigate these dynamics, a small spoken and written corpus was compiled from classroom activities, recorded peer interactions, and informal conversations with students enrolled in Romanian language courses. The data were annotated for instances of maxim observance, weakening, and flouting, as well as for implicatures that required contextual inference. The analysis shows recurring patterns of pragmatic transfer, especially in the interpretation of relevance and quantity, and highlights areas where learners systematically misinterpret or underproduce implicatures. Several examples also reveal successful adaptation to Romanian communicative expectations, suggesting that exposure to diverse interactional settings supports the refinement of pragmatic cues. The findings contribute to a clearer understanding of how the Cooperative Principle operates in cross-cultural learning contexts and point to practical implications for teaching Romanian as a foreign language
Competence (human resources) · Cooperative principle · Everyday life · Interpretation (philosophy) · Point (geometry) · Qualitative research · Relevance (law) · Relevance theory · Romanian · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Second Language Acquisition and Learning · Second Language Learning and Teaching
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |