This book is a contribution to the growing body of research in variational pragmatics and in postcolonial pragmatics, two emergent frameworks in cross-cultural pragmatics. Variational pragmatics studies pragmatic phenomena in regional varieties of the same language from a comparative perspective. Postcolonial pragmatics examines patterns of pragmatic phenomena in postcolonial spaces. The study focuses on the realization patterns of compliments and compliment responses and politeness strategies used in performing both speech acts in Cameroon French and in Canadian French. (Series: Romanistische Linguistik / Romance Linguistics - Vol. 10)