Text VIII

“When I first lived in Saudi Arabia, I tended to answer questions in Arabic about my health (the equivalent of ‘ ‘How are you’?) with the equivalent of my familiar routine responses of ‘Okay’ or ‘Fine’. However, I eventually noticed that when I asked a similar question, people generally answered with a phrase that had the literal meaning of ‘Praise to God’. I soon learned to use the new expression, wanting to be pragmatically appropriate in that context. My first type of answer wasn't ‘wrong’ (my vocabulary and pronunciation weren't inaccurate), but it did convey the meaning that I was a social outsider who answered in an unexpected way.”

(YULE, G. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. pp.5.)