ABSTRACTThis paper presents a comparative analysis of Australian and French social visits between friends from an interactional perspective. The study focuses on the first few exchanges that take place as the guests come face to face with their host and are ushered in across the threshold and shows similarities, but also significant differences, in the three main elements that are regularly used in these ‘crossing the threshold’ exchanges: greetings, miscellaneous comments (on setting, arrival time, etc), and laughter.
