Common ground and metapragmatic expressions in BELF meetings: A response to Zhang and Wu

Abstract

In Liu and Liu (2017), we argued that business English as a lingua franca (BELF) speakers lack common ground (CG) and core CG and explored the role of metapragmatic expressions (MPEs) in creating emergent CG in BELF meetings. Zhang and Wu commented on our article in this volume, arguing that BELF speakers share adequate CG, and MPEs are used as the overall discursive strategy rather than as linguistic devices to create emergent CG. In this response, we argue that CG sharing in communication is an issue of ‘more-or-less.’ Compared with participants in intracultural communication, BELF speakers do lack (core) CG. Being aware of potential or existing problems in communication, BELF speakers employ MPEs as emergent CG-creating devices to activate shared sense and current sense to facilitate ongoing interactions.