Introductory remarks

Every language has conventional formulae to which its speakers resort in certain situations that constantly occur in everyday life: addressing others, attracting their attention, making acquaintance, greeting and parting, conveying congratulations, wishes, gratitude and apologies, making requests and invitations, giving advice, offering condolences and paying compliments. Telephone conversations take place and letters are written within established frameworks that vary according to the relationship between those communicating and the nature of the exchange.

Ignorance of the formulae in use for these purposes among speakers of a language may make dealings with them on any level difficult and unsuccessful or may even cause offence. Or to look at it from a more positive point of view, the speaker who has mastered a limited number of these formulae will make her or his intentions and attitudes clear, set a tone appropriate to the situation and thereby greatly facilitate communication and win social or professional acceptance.

One may say that there are particular advantages for the foreign student of Russian in deploying the correct formulae in a given situation. In the first place, Russians are aware of the difficulty of their language for the foreign student and have little expectation that a foreigner will speak it well, let alone that a foreigner should be sympathetic to their customs, of which they are inured to criticism.