La politesse linguistique dans la communication par courriel en entreprise : question d’échelle et de point de vue

What are the pragmatic norms governing business emails written in L2 French? This study discusses the results of a subjective evaluation test administered to Italian employees who use French for professional communication. It highlights the importance given to the interactional dimension of utterances and the reluctance or difficulty of L2 French writers to move away from the standard structures and formulaic realisations of conventional writing.