It’s Nice to Meet You: Contextual Configuration on Formal and Informal Introductions

Abstract

The discourse of introduction is a discourse exploiting full of contextual meanings. By means of two approaches, viz. situational context and contextual configuration, this paper aims to delve deeper into the discourse of formal and informal introductions in everyday English conversation. Both discourses are taken from the book Everyday Conversation. The data were analyzed from two paradigmatic approaches, i.e., situational context with the components of field, tenor, and mode, and contextual configuration with the three main maxims of OOI (obligatory, optional, and iteration). Based on the careful analysis, the findings demonstrate that both introduction discourses, whether formal or informal ones, are built on the foundation of two types of elements, namely obligatory and optional, which are interwoven within a potential common structure of the following contextual configuration: (OE). [IR^IG1^IG2]. (IE)(context-dependent) > [(R)^(RC)]. Ultimately, through this paradigmatic approach to the discourse of introduction, it arrives at an understanding that the relationship between language and its contextual use is that of mutuality; shall language need context in the process of interpretation, the context ipso facto needs language to manifest per se.