MERSI, APROPO, PARDON IN CONTEMPORARY ROMANIAN: FROM ETYMOLOGY TO LEXICAL PRAGMATICS

This approach discusses the concept of "pragmatic borrowing", proposing a methodological shift of focus regarding linguistic borrowings, which are not seen exclusively in a static, independent manner, but inextricably related to the communicative context and underpinned by a certain cultural, social, cognitive, etc. background. Our research will focus on a small range of French borrowings which, maintaining their core meaning to a higher or lower extent, also express various affective, attitudinal and pragmatic values in contemporary language, strongly linked to the communicative context and sometimes extremely subtle and difficult to perceive. This happens with words such as mersi 'thanks', apropo 'by the way' or pardon 'excuse me' which, in contemporary Romanian, function as genuine pragmatic markers.