By examining the data of romantic dyads with different linguacultural backgrounds who use English (as a lingua franca) which is a mother tongue for neither partner; the paper explores how far the couples are emotionally detached from their LX and how far this affects the accomplishment of their ‘coupleness’.
This paper explores how partners with different linguacultural backgrounds accomplish their ‘coupleness’ in the shared ‘detached’ LX English (or English used as a lingua franca (ELF), which is the first language for neither of them. The paper focuses on the expressions of affection in their private talk and draws upon the data (self audio-recorded ELF home interactions, questionnaires, interviews and participants’ retrospective comments) that come from five ELF couples. At the time of data collection, all couples lived in the countries of the European Union. By examining the couples’ data, the paper enquires how far the intimate partners are emotionally detached from their shared LX and how far this affects their attitudes and actual linguistic behaviour. The discussion shows that ELF couples are engaged in the adaptive creative use of their language(s) in all various ways to meet the needs of ever-changing conditions. They accommodate and modify their English by drawing upon all the available resources, and re-load it with their own emotional values. The findings suggest that the ‘emotional weight’ of partners’ textualizations depends on the extent to which they need, want and manage to territorialize and acculturate their language(s) into their private affective space. Despite the fact that there are situations when the partners are concerned with the ‘detachment’ of their shared LX English, most couples agree that language does not really matter so long as the dyads achieve the desired effect of domestic intimacy and togetherness by emotionally ‘de-(at)taching’ the language to their intimate territory.
