MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ LÊ TRANG AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS FOR THANKS WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH BÀY TỎ LỜI CẢM ƠN TRONG TIẾNG ANH TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Hanoi, 2015 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ LÊ TRANG AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS FOR THANKS WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH BÀY TỎ LỜI CẢM ƠN TRONG TIẾNG ANH TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Dr Đặng Ngọc Hướng Hanoi, 2015 ABTRACT As we all know, differences in culture are one of the main problems leading to a failure of communication Thus, if learners want to develop their communicative competence in the target language, besides listening and speaking, they should improve a wide knowledge about sociolinguistics Usually in daily life, people tend to use the illocutionary act rather than the locutionary act Therefore, learners have difficulties in using the target language appropriately in different contexts A thanking is not an exception It is considered as the important aspect in cultural life of each nation.For above reasons, I myself hope to have much deep knowedge about thanking,so “AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS FOR THANKS WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE” is choosen for my thesis It also help my teaching job at school as well as it can contribute some datas for Vietnamese learners of English at Hanoi Open University This cross-cultural communication study attempts to investigate the similarities and differences in the way English and Vietnamese speakers express gratitude The study is carried out in the light of cross-cultural pragmatics and is based on the authentic data collected In the research, the function and the strategies of thanking are mentioned The way of thanking in both languages has many similarities, besides that, there are some differences Some suggestions to shorten the gaps in English and Vietnamese cultures in gratitude expressions are put forward for learners to consider when they have to express thanks in English and Vietnamese Some implication for teaching the English thanking expressions to Vietnamese learners of English are aslo taken into consideration i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A Addresee D Direct DCT Discourse completion task E English EFL English as a foreign language FSA Face Saving Art ESL English as a second language FTA Face Threatening Act Graph Graphic H Hearer HOU Hanoi Open University ID Indirect S Speaker SA Speech act Sit Situation V Vietnamese VL Vietnamese learners ii CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS FOR THANKS WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Linguistics Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2015 Nguyen Thi Le Trang Approved by SUPERVISOR Dr Đặng Ngọc Hướng Date: …………………… iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Đặng Ngọc Hướng, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher A special word of thanks goes to all the teachers who have taught me and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my friends for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abtract I List of abbreviations II Certificate of originality III Acknowledgements IV Chapter Introduction 1.1 rationale 1.2 aim of the research 1.3 objective of the research 1.4 scope of the research 1.5 significance of the research 1.6 structural organization of the research Chapter : Literature review 2.1 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.2.1 Statement of theoretical framework 2.2.2.Theory of politeness 12 2.2.3 Speech acts and classification of speech acts 18 2.2.4Acts of thanking 19 2.2.5 Thanking Strategies 26 Chapter : Methodology 32 3.1 RESEARCH-GOVERNING ORIENTATIONS 32 3.1.1 Research question(s) 32 3.1.2 Research setting 32 3.1.3 Research approach/type 33 3.2 RESEARCH METHODS 33 3.2.1 Major methods vs supporting methods 33 3.2.2.Data collection and analysis techniques 33 Chapter : Findings and discussion 36 v 4.1 The ways English and Vietnamese people express thanks in given situtations 36 4.2.The similarities between the thanking strategies of the English and Vietnamese 71 4.3 The differences between the thanking strategies of the English and Vietnamese 72 4.4.Implications for Language Learning and Teaching in terms of gratitude expressing strategies 75 Chapter 5: Conclusion 78 5.1 Recapitulation 78 5.2 Concluding remarks 79 5.3 Limitations of the Study 80 5.4 Suggestions for Further Study 81 REFERENCES 82 APPENDICES 85 vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Together with the development of the society, communication, in particular conversation has become an indispensable demand of human Since language has consistently been the main element of human social communication, and English is the international language, the demand to master and effectively use it has been greater and greater By means of communication, people employ language to exchange and express ideas and purposes; they are also simultaneously employing language to purse and maintain social relations Within these functions of language, as a sub-part of linguistic system, thanking has played a very important part in everyday social interaction of many societies Each linguistic system has its own ways of expressing ideas, in particular in giving thanks In fact, language alone does not really make a perfect and complete meaning; it is used to invoke a whole range of shared knowledge and experience between speakers from aspect of joint physical activities, to share cultural values In fact, social factors such as social contexts, different relationships between interlocutors, genders, ages etc determining influence on ways of applying linguistic items, specifically thanking expressions in real social interactions As we all know, differences in culture are one of the main problems leading to a failure of communication Thus, if learners want to develop their communicative competence in the target language, besides listening and speaking, they should improve a wide knowledge about sociolinguistics Usually in daily life, people tend to use the illocutionary act rather than the locutionary act Therefore, learners have difficulties in using the target language appropriately in different contexts Thanking is not an exception It is considered to be an important aspect in cultural life of each nation For the reasons I have mentioned above, I decide to concentrate that topic in the hope that this study can help learners of foreign language overcome these difficulties and effectively employ ways of thanking to reach for a successful conversation 1.2 Aim of the research To explore the notion of thanking and to establish the similarities and differences of thanking in English and Vietnamese 1.3 Objective of the research To achieve the aims mentioned above, following objectives are put forward: - Describing the ways English and Vietnamese people express gratitude in given situations - Pointing out the similarities and differences of the ways to express thanks in the same situations in English and Vietnamese - To suggest some implications for teaching the ways of expressing thanks to Vietnamese learners of English 1.4 Scope of the research The thesis focuses on the ways English and Vietnamese people express thanking Although the author is fully aware of the remarkable contribution of paralinguistic and extra-linguistic aspects in real-life communication, they So, it seems advisable for teachers to improve student’s awareness of sociocultural norms of the target language In other words, teachers should develop student’s abilities in analyzing thank- giving structures in a conscious manner as well as mastering how to appropriately apply thankgiving in real social interactions In addition, it in fact is rare for people who study another language not to have a desire to speak it Probably, conversation practice can be assumed as the most reliable route to help students enter a realm of real communication Specifically, in learning ways of giving thanks, students in particular need to be given more practice The frequent practice helps students produce grammatically correct thanks As a result, as much as possible, teachers should consider encouraging students to involve in real social interactions The more students are concerned in real social encounters, the better the proficiency in employing thank expressions These can be achieved through dividing students into small groups so that they can work in pairs and freely express their gratitude and appreciation through using thank- giving patterns with distinctive styles according to different situations or social relation between the participants Together with designing exercises into spoken models for role-play situations, teacher should give more exercises with written forms In this chapter, the common strategies used by British and Vietnamese participants through twenty situations were mentioned Through the comparison, this part has shown the similarities and the differences between the two groups Besides, it also shows the implications of findings in language teaching and learning 77 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 5.1 Recapitulation Ways of expressing thanks in English and Vietnamese, to a certain extent, share certain similarities as well as differences By means of the comparison and description of English and Vietnamese thank, in terms of syntactic and pragmatic features, there might be expected to result some following consequences As regard about the syntactic means, thank, either in English and Vietnamese are always presented by commonly sentences structures already existed in everyday social encounters such as declarative, exclamative and interrogative sentences The most typical feature of thanking in English is that they are often constituted into conversational zed formulas Otherwise, on the basis of pragmatic, than, exclusive of deleted structures occupy higher frequent occurrence in English thanking than in Vietnamese ones Furthermore, in the two languages, thanking can be performed directly or indirectly, depending so much on situational contexts, relationships of the participants, interactive patterns and so on Thanking as referred to pragmatic means, English and Vietnamese people express thank shares some similarities about the structures, polite strategies, basing on the relationships between the interlocutors, situations or contexts However, cultures influence communication styles According to Levine and Adelman, American culture belongs to “high involvement” conversation style and Vietnamese culture belongs to “high considerateness” one So, there are also different between English and Vietnamese thanking Vietnamese speakers tend to express thanking indirectly while English speakers like to thank directly Besides that, personal pronoun is one of the 78 many elements to express appropriate thanking in Vietnamese And in English, personal name is used more often From the study, I find out that, to express a successful thanking, we need know about not only the language–specific features but also the culture–specific features in both language English 5.2 Concluding remarks It is a well-knowwn fact that culture is reflected in language The present study is concerned with the speech act behavior of gratitude expressions ,strategies employed by native speakers of English and by those of Vietnamese Findings in this study imply cross-cultural similarities and differences in speech act of thanking This study attempts to illustrate how English and Vietnamese express thanking in certain situations In general, both English and Vietnamese groups share many similarities in expressing gratitude Nearly all of them preferer short strategies in surveyed situations Especially, both groups have the same number of people choosing the same given answer in situations It may indicate that different cultures still have something in common The results showed that the English participants, when expressing gratitude, seem consider similar factors as the Vietnamese participants They consider the size of imposition, the relationship with the hearer, the social distance, the social setting of the conversation and the rights and obligations of the hearer and the speaker In addition to expressing the simple function of thanking, they regularly expressed other functions such as complimenting, reassuring, promising to repay, expressing surprise and delight, expressing a lack of necessity of obligation and expressing a desire to continue the relationship 79 However, this study also worked out the major differences in expressing gratitude between the two cultures The results also indicated that the English value some of these factors differently from the Vietnamese participants The Vietnamese tend to avoid indebting themselves as much as possible, whereas, native English speakers’ data showed no function of indebtedness We can see that showing indebtedness is not a conventional expression of gratitude for the native speakers of English English speakers have the habit of expressing gratitude shorter than Vietnamese speakers Meanwhile, the Vietnamese speakers are in favour of combining many strategies at the same time That is why they usually express gratitude in the long ways Thus, the giving and receiving of thanks, as well as responding appropriately, are d o n e i n some of s u c h ways that feelings of solidarity can be built All in all, learning a foreign language well means more than merely mastering the pronunciation, grammar, words and idioms It means learners have to see the world in the s ame wa y as native speakers of that language see it, learn the ways in which their language reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of their society, learn to understand their language of the mind Learning a language, in fact, is inseparable from learning its culture However, to understand different cultures is not easy So it is very important to aware the culture differences between languages and how to tell the difference between in daily conversation is only one part of it H o p e f u l l y, t his study will be of interest and of possible use to ESL and EFL learners as well as teachers 5.3 Limitations of the Study This study is carried out with an attempt to investigate differences and similarities on linguistic aspects of thanking in both English and Vietnamese Because of knowledge and time limit, I have not been able to 80 look at fully all aspects of thanking in English and Vietnamese but only syntactic and pragmatic features The result from questionnaires is not so adequate and reliable enough to illustrate differences as well as similarities, because the situations in questionnaires are narrow and not cover various relationships In addition, respondents were put into written forms when answering the questionnaires’ questions, so answers might not be slightly exact to what is said in real life 5.4 Suggestions for Further Study Within the limitations of the study, a full description of all aspects of thanking cannot be done Therefore, there are many problems which need further research in the future: - The influence of other factors of context to thanking expressions in English and Vietnamese - The responsive utterances of thanking 81 REFERENCES In English 1.Adler, P.1972 Culture Shock and the Cross-Cultural Learning Experience International Education Vol.2 2.Aijmer, K (1996) Conversational Routine in English: Convention and Creativity New York: Addison Wesley Longman Limited 3.Apte, Mahadev L 1974 ""Thank you" and South Asian Languages: A Comparative Sociolinguistic Study." Linguistics 136:67-89 Austin J L 1962 How to Do Things with Words Cambridge University Press Bach, K and Harnish, R.1984 Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts The MIT Press 6.Bentahila, A and Davies, E.1998 Cuture and Lanuage Use IRAL Journal, VOL.XXVII/2, May 7.Blundell, J.(1982) Function in English Oxford University Press 8.Bock, p.K.1970.Cuture Shock Alfred A Knoff.Inc 9.Brown, G and Yule, G.1989 Discourse Analysis.Cambridge University Press 10.Brown, P & Levinson, S.1987 Politeness: Some universals in Language Usage Cambridge University Press 11.Byram, M and Fleming, M.1998.Languge Learning in Intercultural Perspectives Cambridge University Press 12.Chomsky, N.1965 Aspect of theory of syntax Cambridge, Maa: MIT Press 13.Clyne, M.1981.Culture and Discoure Structure, Jounal of Pragmatics 3, p.61-66 82 14 Jung, W.H (1994) Speech acts of “Thank you” and responses to it in American English.Paper presented at the 16th Annual meeting of the American Association for Applied Linguistics Baltimore, MDe 15.Grice, H P 1975 Logic and Conversation In P Cole and J L Morgan, eds Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts New York: Academic Press 16.Herbert, R K 1986 "Say "Thank You" or Something." American Speech 61.1:76-88 17.Holmes, J 1986 "Complements and Compliment Responses in New Zealand English." Anthropological Linguistics 28,4:485-508 18 Hinkel, E (1992) Pragmatics of Interaction: Expressing Thanks in a Second Language Reports Research/Technical (143) Leech, G.1983 Principles of Pragmatics, Longman London and New York 19 Quirk, R (1993) Language activator London: Longman Group Ltd Mark, E (1987) Socializing Oxford University Press 20 Searle, John R 1969 Speech Acts An Essay in the Philosophy of Language Cambridge: Cambr Quirk, R (1993) Language activator London: Longman Group Ltd 21 Searle, J.R (1969) Speech act Cambridge: Cambridge University Pressidge University Press 22 Wall, A.P (1987) Say it naturally Cengage Learning, Inc 23.Yule, G.1996 Pragmatics Oxford University Press In Vietnamese 24 Ban , Diệp Quang (2005) "Ngữ pháp câu" NXB Giáo dục - 2005 25 Châu, Đỗ Hữu 1995 Giáo trình giản yếu dụng học.NXB Giáo dụcĐỗ Hữu Châu.1995.Các yếu tố dụng học Tiếng Việt Tạp chí Ngôn Ngữ số 4/95 83 26 Chiến, Nguyễn Văn.1992.Ngôn ngữ học đối chiếu đối chiếu ngôn ngữ Đông Nam Á Trường Đại Học Sư Phạm Ngoại Ngữ Hà Nội 27 Chiến Nguyễn Văn.2000 Ngôn ngữ học ngôn ngữ giao văn hóa: Kỷ yếu hội thảo khoa học quốc gia “ Thành tố văn hóa dạy học ngoại ngữ” Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ- ĐHQG Hà Nội 28 Đạt, Hữu 2000 Văn hóa ngôn ngữ giao tiếp người Việt.NXB Văn hoa – Thông tin 29.Dân, Nguyễn Đức (1996), Lô Gích – Ngữ Nghĩa – Cú pháp, NXB Giáo dục 30.Dân, Nguyễn Đức (1998), Ngữ dụng học, tập một, NXB Giáo dục 31.Hạnh, Nguyễn Đức Hành Vi Cảm Ơn Đối Thoại Anh - Việt - Xét sở Ngữ Nghĩa Học Dụng Học.(1996) Trường ĐH KHXH &NV Hà Nội Nhà xuất ĐHQG HN 32.Phiến, Hoàng Trọng (1996)"Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt - Câu" 33.Quang, Nguyễn1996.Một số phạm trù giao thoa văn hóa Việt –Mỹ hoạt động giao tiếp Tập san Ngoại ngữ số 4/96 34.Quang, Nguyễn 2003 Một số phương pháp nghiên cứu giao tiếp nội văn hóa giao tiếp văn hóa Trường Đại Học Ngoại Ngữ - DHQG Hà Nội 35.Thành, Phạm Thị, (1995) Nghi thức lời nói Tiếng Việt đại qua cáchphát ngôn: chào, cảm ơn, xin lỗi Luận án phó tiến sĩ khoa học ngữ văn Trường ĐH KHXH &NV Hà Nội Nhà xuất ĐHQG HN 36 Ngọc, Phan (2004) Bản sắc văn hóa Việt Nam NXB Văn học 37.Trung, Hồ Ngọc 2013 Lectures on Discourse Analysis Hanoi 38.Tuệ, Hoàng,1996 Ngôn ngữ đời sống xã hội-văn hóa.NXB Giáo Dục 39.Ngọc, Phan (2004) Bản sắc văn hóa Việt Nam NXB Văn học "Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt - Câu" by Hoang Trong Phien (1996) 84 APPENDICES Dear participant, In order to explore cross cultural and Inter-language speech behavior, this study aims to investigate how English and Vietnamese speakers would respond to the given situations For the purpose of study, you are request to help answer all the questions The information you provide will be used for this study only and will remain confidential Below are the scenarios where you feel grateful to someone who has done something for you Please imagine yourself in each situation and respond accordingly based on your immediate reaction Thank you for participating in this survey Situation You are a senior lecture and supervised an excellent student So you proposed the director to appoint him/her your assistant lecture and s/he has been working with you for years Today you have an appointment with a student on his thesis but you have to go out Your assistant is in the room and he is not busy As a result, you write your suggestions on a sheet of paper and your assistant helps you to give to the student when he comes to your office You say: Situation Your only secretary has been working for you for the last years You are going to make a very important speech and discuss a potential deal You should have told her about this earlier but you forgot it So you apologized her for the short notice and asked her to get ready the speech and the deal yesterday As a result, she had to it at home Today she gives you the speech and the deal and you feel very satisfied with them You say: ………………………………………………………………… Situation Your mother was seriously ill and had to undergo an operation but you didn't have enough money for the fee because it cost too much 85 Fortunately, your close friend lent you $6000 How would you say to express gratitude to him? You say: ………………………………………………………………… Situation You and your next-door neighbor study in the same faculty of a university You often borrow each other’s books to reduce the cost of studies Today s/he gives you some books you want for your home assignment because it is a little bit far from your house to the library You say: ……………………………………………………………… Situation You have worked as a private secretary for a long time Today your boss asks you to phone a new employee to discuss a new deal However, you forgot his/her number So the boss must give you the number again How would you say to express gratitude to him? You say: …………………………………………… Situation You had been writing a thesis for months, but you got stuck because some of the books are not available in the library You asked your supervisor and s/he allowed you to use his/her family library But you still couldn't understand some important chapters and s/he had to explain them That helped you write an excellent thesis Today you are going to visit him/her How would you say to express gratitude to him? You say: Situation Your new friend visits you on your birthday and gives you a precious present that you wanted to buy before You say Situation A vice-President of the company you are working for who offers you an unexpected raise You say…………………………………………………………………… Situation 9: You were shopping for a shirt and a (male) stranger approaches you and 86 says, This would look amazing on you! You say Situation 10: Some friends are over at your house One of them looks at a clock hanging on the wall and says, I love your clock It looks great in your living room! You say Thank you for co-operation 87 BẢN ĐIỀU TRA Tôi soạn thảo điều tra nhằm tìm hiểu cách thức đưa lời cảm ơn người Việt Các liệu thu thập sử dụng cho phần phân tích luận văn cao học Xin quí vị vui lòng dành chút thời gian trả lời câu hỏi điều tra nhắm giúp hoàn thành việc nghiên cứu khoa học Tôi đánh giá cao giúp đỡ quí vị, xin khẳng định không nêu danh tính quí vị hội thảo hay tranh luận Xin chân thành cảm ơn quí vị Xin quí vị đọc tình sau viết câu gợi ý vào chỗ trống Tình 1: Bạn giáo viên có thâm niên nghề bạn hướng dẫn cho sinh viên xuất sắc Vì bạn đề nghị với hiệu trưởng đề nghị sinh viên làm trợ lý cho bạn vòng năm.Hôm bạn có hẹn với sinh viên đề tài sv bạn lại phải ngoaì có việc.Trợ lý bạn văn phòng cậu không bận Cuối cùng, bạn viết gợi ý bạn vào tờ giấy trọ lý đưa giúp bạn cho cậu sinh viên cậu tới văn phòng bạn Bạn nói quay phòng? Tình 2: Cô thư kí bạn làm việc cho bạn năm Bạn chuẩn bị có phát biểu quan trọng thương thảo việc giao dịch có tiềm năng.Đáng lẽ bạn phải nói với cô sớm bạn quên Vì bạn xin lỗi cô thiếu xót đề nghị cô soạn cho bạn phát biểu giao dịch buôn bán.Kết là, cô làm việc nhà Hôm nay, cô đưa cho bạn phát biểu hợp đồng, bạn cảm thấy hài long với chúng Bạn nói gì? Tình 3: Mẹ bạn bị ốm nặng phải trải qua phẫu thuât bạn đủ tiền để trả viện phí chi phí lớn Thât may, bạn than bạn cho bạn mượn 6000 USD.Bạn làm để cảm ơn bạn bạn 88 Tình 4: Bạn người hàng xóm học khoa trường đại học Bạn thường mượn sách lẫn để giảm chi phí học tập Hôm nay, cô/anh đưa cho bạn vài sách bạn muốn có để làm tiểu luận nhà thư viện xa nhà bạn Bạn nói gì? Tình 5: Bạn làm vị trí thư kí riêng thời gian dài Hôm nay, sếp bạn yêu cầu bạn gọi điện cho nhân viên để làm hợp đồng mua bán.Tuy nhiên, bạn quên số điện thoại nhân viên Vì vậy, sếp bạn phải đưa cho bạn lại số điện thoại Bạn nói để bày tỏ thái độ với sếp ………………………………………………………………………………… Tình 6: Bạn làm luận văn vòng tháng, bạn gặp số khó khăn số tài liệu thư viện.Bạn hỏi giáo viên hướng dẫn cô/thấy cho phaeps bạn sử dụng thư viện gia đình cô/thầy ây Nhưng bạn không hiểu vài chương quan trọng cô/thầy phải giải thích cho bạn Điều giúp bạn có luận văn xuất sắc Hôm nay, bạn đến thăm cô/thầy Bạn nói để bày tỏ với thầy/cô bạn? Tình 7.Hôm sinh nhật bạn Vì lý bạn không tổ chức sinh nhật Một người bạn thân bạn nhớ sinh nhật bạn đến nhà tặng cho bạn quà Nếu bạn tình bạn nói gì? Bạn nói để cảm ơn người bạn đó? Tình Bạn nhân viên xuất sắc năm liền Phó giám đốc công ty nơi bạn làm việc đề xuất nâng lương cho bạn , bạn nói để cảm ơn anh/ông ấy? Tình Bạn mua sắm muốn mua áo sơ mi, có người bạn không quen đến gần bạn nói: “ Cái trông tuyệt với bạn đấy” Bạn nói để cảm ơn người ấy? Tình 10 Một vài người bạn qua nhà bạn Một người số họ 89 nhìn thấy đồng hồ treo tường nhà bạn va nói Phòng khách nhà bạn thật đẹpkhi có đồng hồ Bạn nói để cảm ơn người ấy? SOURCE OF DATA Đoàn Văn Huấn.2005 Expressing gratitude by native speakers of English and Vietnamese learners of English, Vietnam national university-Hanoi College of foreign languages 90 ` [...]... kind of information to bring the conversation to an end." (Wardhaugh:1985).In the above situation, if Jane intends to continue the conversation, Jim's next strategy would be to use an apology expression rather than the thanks expression: "Excuse me, I've gotta go to class " The thank you strategy may be less direct and less explicit than the apology strategy The use of thank you expression in the above... (discussion situation to newsannouncing situation) or between an old topic and a new topic Sometimes the topic introduced in this way is not connected with the old one, but the device serves as a lubricant and as the speaker's pretence that conversation is 23 an orderly, cooperative endeavor, and that she smoothly turns to the new topic.On occasion, thank you expressions are used to stop an ongoing conversation... Egyptian Arabic speakers use different forms and strategies in expressing thanking and responses to it Such as repetition, redundancy” also discusses the interrelationship between language, culture and thought, “They are not all the same thing, but none can survive 7 without the others” Obviously, it is impossible for a human being to study anything without being acknowledged of the language and its... ‘Get to the point” “Don’t beat around the bush!”, ‘Let’s get down to business!” These sayings all indicate the importance of dealing directly with issues rather than avoiding them” Thomas (1995:124) lists 4 main factors which appear to govern directness and indirectness in all languages and cultures as follows: The relative power of speaker over the hearer The social distance between the speaker and the. .. serve an important role in situational change or topic transition Consider:(6) Context: In the news program, "Today" on NBC, one announcer moves to another Bryan: Let's swing it on over to News Desk by Margaret Margaret: Thanks, Bryan In the news this morning, long and curious presidential campaign 1992 In the above example, Margaret's thanks expression acts as a bridge between an old situation and a... of the study in order to reach the answers of the following questions: 1- Are there any significant differences in the ways people from different cultural backgrounds realize the speech act of thanking? 2- Are there significant differences in the ways Arab learners of English and native speakers of English use the speech act of thanking due to the differences in their cultural backgrounds 3- Are there... relative power (P) between the speaker and the hearer, the social distance (D) between them and the rank(R) of the imposition in a particular culture 14 The power (P) is defined as the degree to which the speaker can impose his or her own plans and his self-evaluation (face) at the expense of the hearer’s plans and self-evaluation” (p 77) The social distance (D) in Brown and Levinson’s approach is “symmetric... invitations, information or directions, etc According to Blundell (1982), "Function in English" and Mark, E (1987), "Socializing" categorized thanks with reference to given situations, ranging from formal to informal thanking patterns In these above mentioned books, limited thanks are just put in list and there is no any overall description of linguistic features as well as how to employ them in interactions... is “ the public self image of a person that every member wants to claim for himself” that is the emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects everyone else to recognize Politeness, therefore, can be defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face and accomplished in situations of social distance or closeness Showing awareness for another’s face in formal... how the thanker evaluates what the benefactor did for him/her andhow the expressions function While the major and general effect of thanking is, like the speech act of complimenting, to enhance rapport or solidarity between interlocutors by making the other party feel good, there are some more specific functions which thanking serves In this section, I will classify them in order to examine how thanking