LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF GREETING PRACTICES AND THEIR COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS

Abstract

Greeting practices constitute a fundamental aspect of human communication, serving to establish social bonds and convey politeness, respect, and social hierarchy. This article provides a linguistic analysis of greetings across different cultures, focusing on their structural forms, semantic meanings, and pragmatic functions. A mixed-method approach, combining qualitative discourse analysis with cross-cultural comparison, reveals that despite cultural variations, greetings universally facilitate social cohesion and smooth interaction. The study also highlights implications for intercultural communication and language teaching.