Maybe just things we grew up with: linguistic and cultural hybridity in ELF couple talk

This paper investigates the use of ELF in interactions between people in a romantic relationship (couples) and explores to what extent cultural factors are involved in the process of establishing and maintaining intimacy through ELF, with the main focus on the hybrid forms in their talk. The data (audio recordings of domestic ELF interactions, questionnaires, interviews) came from four European couples representing four different first-language constellations. The data suggest that ELF couples do not conform to conventionalized ENL linguistic and cultural norms. This allows for a creative pragmatic process of hybridization and acculturation of English into the partners' private space, whereby ELF couples will accommodate the language by drawing upon any available resources, and re-load it with their own cultural values for the pretextual purpose of achieving the desired effect of mediating comity.