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Speech Acts Bibliography:
Thanks
Coulmas, F. (1981). "Poison
to your soul": Thanks and apologies contrastively viewed. In F. Coulmas
(Ed.), Explorations in standardized communication situations and
patterned speech (pp. 69-91). The Hague, the Netherlands: Mouton.
The author considers thanks and apologies,
and argues that a contrastively informed analysis can help to reveal
typological relationships between them. He draws on materials from
European languages and from Japanese. He makes the point that both
thanking and apologizing are linked to the notion of indebtedness,
through gratitude and regret respectively. He notes that in Japanese
culture, the concept of gifts and favors focuses on the trouble they
have caused the benefactor rather than the aspects which are pleasing
to the recipient. So leaving a dinner in a Japanese home we might say,
O-jama itashimashita 'I have intruded on you.' The response,
Iie, iie, do itashimashite 'No, no, don't mention it' is a responder
for both apologies and thanks. Coulmas notes that sumimasen 'thank
you' or 'I'm sorry' tends to be appropriate for a host of occasions.
It is noted that in Japan the smallest favor makes the receiver a debtor.
Social relations create mutual responsibilities and debts. Both thanks
and apologies stress obligations and interpersonal commitment. In fact,
gratitude is equated with a feeling of guilt. The Japanese language
has a large range of routine formulae for exhibiting sensitivity to
mutual obligations, responsibilities, and moral indebtedness.
Eisenstein, M. & Bodman, J. (1995). Expressing
gratitude in American English. In G. Kasper & S. Blum-Kulka (Eds.),
Interlanguage pragmatics (pp. 64-81). NY: Oxford University
Press.
The authors point out that expressing gratitude
is a complex act, potentially involving both positive as well as negative
feelings on the part of the giver and receiver. They note that thanks
is a face-threatening act in which the speaker acknowledges a debt
to the hearer — thus threatening the speaker's negative face.
Thus the very nature of thanking, which can engender feelings of warmth
and solidarity among interlocutors stands as well to threaten negative
face (a desire to be unimpeded in one's actions). They report on four
studies that they conducted on expressions of gratitude. In the first
they audiotaped or wrote field notes on 50 situations in which expressions
of gratitude occurred. They then prepared 14 vignettes which they had
56 NSs of American English write written responses to. These natives
were found to draw from a finite pool of conventionalized expressions
and ideas. In the second study, the same questionnaire was administered
to 67 nonnative speakers in advanced-level ESL classes. Twenty-five
of them also provided L1 responses, so that they could check on transfer
from the L1. In their report of the findings, they focused on the seven
situations that were problematic. The Japanese respondents were found
to have a low percentage of acceptable responses. One explanation given
was the lack of cultural congruity and the fact that this written DCT
did not allow for nonverbal cues and prosodic features which could
soften the response. In addition, they might have wanted to apologize
instead, since that would be acceptable in Japanese given the indebtedness
implied in an expression of gratitude in Japanese culture. In a third
study, the questionnaire was administered orally to 10 NSs. They found
the results almost identical to the written DCT results for NSs. In
a fourth study, they set up role plays — 34 by NS pairs, 40 by
NNS pairs, and 24 by NS with NNS pairs. They found that the role plays
contained the same words and semantic formulas as in the written data,
confirming that the written data were representative of oral language
use as well. NNS role plays were 50% shorter than those of natives,
most likely because they lacked the words. Also, they lacked the warm
and sincere tone conveyed by NSs. NNSs sometimes lacked the expression
of reciprocity that NSs gave or did not convey it in an appropriate
manner. They conclude that expressing gratitude involves a complex
series of interactions and encodes cultural values and customs.
Eisenstein,
M. & Bodman, J. W. (1986). 'I very appreciate': Expressions
of gratitude by native and non-native speakers of American English.
Applied Linguistics, 7 (2), 167-185.
The researchers looked at 6 DCT situations
out of 14, administered first to 56 NSs and then revised and administered
to 67 NNSs from five countries. The study found native speakers to
show consistent use of expressions of gratitude within specifically
defined contexts, often in the form of speech act sets. For example,
the thanks was accompanied by other functions such as complimenting,
reassuring, expressing surprise and delight, expressing a lack of necessity
or obligation. The speech act sets ranged from two to five functions.
Shorter thanking episodes sometimes reflected greater social distance
between the interlocutors. Longer episodes would come under conditions
of social disequilibrium when the perceived need for thanking was great.
Advanced nonnative English speakers had considerable difficulty adequately
expressing gratitude in the target language. They found limitations
at the sociopragmatic level that were severe because they created the
potential for serious misunderstandings. Other problems arose at the
pragmalinguistic level: divergence at the lexical and syntactic levels
and inability to approximate native idioms and routines. They had the
most difficulty with a situation involving a lunch treat. Almost all
native speakers stated in general terms an invitation to reciprocate
("Thank you very much. Next time it's on me.") NNSs rarely said this,
though some indicated in interviews afterwards that they intended to
do this but felt it unnecessary and inappropriate to mention it. When
this was omitted, native speakers felt the responses were incomplete
or lacking the appropriate level of gratitude. The researchers were
struck by the fact that the Japanese respondents had the lowest percentage
of acceptable and native-like/perfect responses. The researchers speculated
that they either could not find the words, were perhaps not comfortable
socializing in the US, or had not had opportunities to express gratitude.
Ferrara, K. (1994). Pragmatic transfer in American's
use of Japanese thanking routines. Unpublished manuscript. Department
of English, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.
Report on two studies, first an ethnographic
observational one where it was found that 15 native English speakers
persisted in verbal patterns established in their base culture and
ignored native Japanese models with regard to apologies. She presents
the American and the Japanese views as to when apologies are called
for. Then she reports another study involving a discourse completion
test and an attitude questionnaire given to 15 JSL faculty in residence
in Japan for 2 years with one year of formal study, 7 JSL faculty back
in US -- had 2 mo. of study and resided in Japan 10 months, 14 JFL
who had 1 year of study and half had been to Japan, 4 J1, 7 E1. They
all rated both cultures on politeness and propensity to apologize.
On a DCT found that the Americans tended to use thanks where a quasi-apology
form was the preferred token. When a professor is given a small gift,
Americans chose to give thanks whereas Japanese would apologize for
being unworthy. Naturalistic learning was found to provide a slight
advantage over classroom learning of quasi-apology thanking routines.
Also, awareness of the norms was seen to evolve. Conflict of a rights-oriented
vs. an obligation-oriented culture. Recommendation that more overt
instruction in cultural differences be offered.
Hinkel, E. (1994). Pragmatics
of interaction: Expressing thanks in a second language. Applied
Language Learning, 5 (1), 73-91.
Reviews several cultural differences in the
implications of expressing thanks, e.g., in South and East Asian languages
(not including Chinese), expression of thanks implies social indebtedness
that is not connoted by a thank-you in Chinese or English. In some
Arabic cultures, certain forms of thanking establish a social debt
while others do not. Gender differences exist as well, e.g., in Hispanic
countries (75-76). Knowledge of how to say thanks in a second language
does not necessarily translate into knowledge of when a statement
of thanks is appropriate (73-74). To examine nonnative-speaker (NNS)
use of thanking with respect to native-speaker (NS) norms in English,
a study was conducted with 233 graduate and undergraduate students
at Ohio State University, with 1 to 5 years of residence in the U.S.
Of the sample, 199 were NNSs from Chinese, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese,
Spanish, and Arabic backgrounds, in decreasing size of sub-samples.
The remaining 34 comprised a native English control group (77). Data
were grouped according to a taxonomy of thanking from Coulmas (1981),
which gave these features of thanking: expression before or after the
stimulus action had occurred, thanks for material or immaterial goods,
action initiated by the benefactor or the beneficiary, and thanks that
do or do not imply indebtedness (77-78). Participants were presented
with 24 situations involving a fictitious fellow student, "KC," with
whom participants were to imagine that they were acquainted. Each situation
gave a choice of three responses that involved zero, one, or two direct
expressions of thanks (78-79). Responses with one statement of thanks
were omitted from the analysis; responses with either zero or two thanking
statements were analyzed with Kendall's Coefficient of Concordance
(W), which ranges in value from 0 (random) to 1 (high consistency/correlation).
For the response categories analyzed, W was very high: .981 and .851
(p<.001) for zero and two thanks, respectively. This indicated that
each sub-sample was highly consistent in its preferred response, although
it did mean that persons in different cultural sub-samples responded
similarly (80). Analysis with Kendall's Tau (T), with values ranging
from -1 (inversely related) to 1 (directly related), showed Chinese
and English NSs to be most similar in their choice of responses, with
T=.84 and T=.86 for one- and two-thanks responses, respectively (p<.01).
The correlations for no other pairs of sub-samples were higher than
the critical value of T=.64 (p<.05) (81-83). The results of the
first analysis with Kendall's W present negative evidence for Blum-Kulka's
notion of a pragmatic interlanguage that conforms to neither L1 nor
L2 norms, since sub-samples are highly consistent within themselves.
Rather, L1 appears to provide the basis for forming responses in the
L2 in every case (83), in which case it is the rules for thanking in
the L1, learned at a very early age, which predominate. Thus, NNSs
who have resided in the U.S. for long periods still may not render
a thank-you appropriately (83-84). The implication for teaching is
that appropriate pragmatic use of thanks and other speech acts must
be explicitly taught and is not acquired incidentally. This begins
with making NNSs aware of the implications of their nonnative-like
productions. NNSs can also learn from observing NSs offering thanks
and taking note of what is said in what contexts. While the pragmatics
of thanking are quite complex, their relative linguistic simplicity
allows them to be presented at intermediate, as opposed to advanced,
levels of language learning (84-85).
Ide, R. (1998). 'Sorry for your kindness': Japanese
interactional ritual in public discourse. Journal of Pragmatics,
29, 509-529.
The study examines the social and metapragmatic
functions of sumimasen (lit., 'there is no end' or 'it is not
enough'), a conventional expression of apology in Japanese that is
also used to express the feeling of thanks. Using Goffman’s (1971)
notion of ‘remedial’ and ‘supportive’ interchanges
as the conceptual framework, the paper first describes seven pragmatic
functions of sumimasen based on 51 instances of sumimasen
recorded through ethnographic participant/non-participant observations
of discourse in an ophthalmology clinic in Tokyo. The professionals
were two female doctors, a female nurse, and a female receptionist.
Fifty-eight patients participated, males and females of many ages.
The seven functions were: 1) a sincere apology, 2) quasi-thanks and
apology, 3) a request marker, 4) an attention-getter, 5) a leave-taking
devise, 6) an affirmative and confirmational response, and 7) a reciprocal
exchange of acknowledgment (as a ritualized formulas to facilitate
public face-to-face communication). These seven functions are presented
not as mutually exclusive but rather as overlapping concepts, ranging
from remedial, remedial and supportive, to supportive in discourse.
The author also cites Kumagai, Kumatoridani, Coulmas, and others to
account for the concept of indebtedness that emerges from the shift
of point of view from the speaker (the benefactor) to the listener
(the provider of the benefit) (‘debt-sensitive’ society).
The paper also demonstrates the exchange of sumimasen as a metapragmatic
ritual activity, an anticipated and habitual behavior in public discourse
in Japanese society. The author also reframes the multiple functions
of sumimasen in accordance with the folk notion of aisatsu,
which constitutes the ground rules of appropriate and smooth Japanese
public interaction. The author notes that historically arigato 'thank
you' was a form of excuse, derived from ari 'exist, have' plus
gatashi 'difficult,' literally meaning, 'it is hard to accept/have.'
Shitsurei shimasu 'I intrude' is a similar expression when
leaving or entering one's space in public.
Kim, Y. (1994). Nihonjin jyakunensouno ‘kansya’
to ‘wabi’no aisatsuno hyougenno anketo cyousa to sono kousatsu
(‘A study of the expressions of gratitude and apology in Japanese
young generation: In comparison with those in older generation’).
Kokugogaku Kenkyuu (The Japanese Language Review) 33, 23-33.
This study used a questionnaire to survey 20
native speakers of Japanese in their 20’s to 30’s (younger
generation) in comparison with another 20 in their 50’s to 60’s
(older generation) regarding their use of apologizing and thanking
expressions. The frequency of the expressions and intensifiers (adverbials
such as doumo, taihen, hontouni, makotoni) were analyzed in
terms of: the semantic categories (apology, or thanks, although sometimes
combined), magnitude of thanks and apology, and status of the interlocutors.
Among the younger speakers, the prototypical expressions of thanks
were variants of arigatou, whereas typical apology expressions
(variants of gomen, sumanai, and moushiwake nai) were
sometimes used for thanks as well. The larger the magnitude of thanks/apology
was and the older the hearer was than the speaker, the more intensifiers
were likely to be used and apologetic expressions were preferred (rather
than pure expressions of thanks like variants of arigatou).
Kimura, K. (1994). The multiple functions of sumimasen.
Issues in Applied Linguistics, 5 (2), 279-302.
The article describes the functions of sumimasen,
expressing both apology and thanks in everyday Japanese conversation.
A database consisting of 10 hours of daily conversation was used, yielding
a total of 44 tokens of sumimasen (41 uttered by women, 3 by
men). The database had been collected in 1984 and consisted
of audiotaped conversation between a housewife in Tokyo and people
she interacted with for a week. Five functions of sumimasen were
found: request marker, attention-getter, closing marker, regret marker,
and gratitude marker. As a gratitude marker, "the speaker, recognizing
that s/he is the cause of some trouble for the addressee, attempts
to redress the threat to the addressee's face by producing sumimasen.
If sumimasen is not uttered by the speaker, the addressee may
feel that s/he has lost face through the imposition" (p. 287). The
study also relates sumimasen to at least ten other strategies
for expressing apology and to eight other ways to express gratitude
in Japanese (e.g., arigatou 'thank you,' osore irimasu
'thank you so much,' and kyoushuku desu 'thank you
so much.').
Kumatoridani, T. (1999). Alternation and co-occurrence
in Japanese thanks. Journal of Pragmatics, 31, 623-642.
The paper compares usages and functions of
two Japanese apologizing and thanking expressions, sumimasen and
arigatou, based on: 1) 140 collected interchanges including
naturally occurring gratitude and apology exchanges; 2) findings from
the questionnaire give to 189 native speakers of Japanese; and 3) his
own native speaker intuition. Although sumimasen can replace
the gratitude expression arigatoo, the two are not completely
interchangeable. The author first accounts for the applicability of
alternation, and discusses the more formal and thus polite nature of
sumimasen as an expression of gratitude. The use of sumimasen
as a gratitude expression occurs as a result of a shift in the
focus (‘empathy operation’) from the speaker’s to the
hearer’s perspective. This shift is considered a conventionalized
strategic device to repair the politeness imbalance between the interlocutors.
However, the use of sumimasen tends to be appropriate only in
expressing acceptance of the offer combined with gratitude and not
refusal, whereas arigatoo can be used for both acceptance and
refusal of the offer. Use of sumimasen is also inappropriate
in response to ‘affective’ speech acts such as congratulations,
condolences, compliments, and encouragement. Finally, the author explains
the sequential preference in using the two expressions in a single
event (sumimasen first, and then arigatoo). While sumimasen
functions to repair imbalance locally, arigatoo has dual
functions both to repair imbalance and to close a conversation.
Miyake, K. (1994). "Wabi" igaide tsukawareru wabi
hyogen: Sono tayoukatno jittaito uchi, soto, yosono kankei (‘Formulaic
apologies in non-apologetic situations: A data analysis and its relation
with the concept of uchi-soto-yoso’). Nihongo Kyouiku
(Journal of Japanese Language Teaching), 82, 134-146.
This is a questionnaire study reporting the
occasions in which apologies like sumimasen are likely to be
used (as well as non-apologetic occasions in which apologies are used)
and the effects of social variables on such occasions. English and
Japanese questionnaires were given to 101 British and 122 Japanese
participants respectively. The questionnaire presented 36 situations
that elicited expressions of gratitude and/or apologies. Closeness
and status of the interlocutors, and severity of the offense/indebtedness
(benefits and losses) were manipulated in those situations. The participants
first wrote down the responses they were likely to give (most like
in speaking, although this is not specified in the article) and indicated
on a 5-point scale what their feelings would be (strong gratitude/slight
gratitude/neutral feeling neither gratitude nor apology/slight apology/strong
apology/others). The paper reports only the idiomatic expressions found
in the data, excluding additional expressions. Major findings: 1) the
language forms for apology expressions (e.g., sumimasen) in
Japanese are used not just to express apology but also gratitude; the
Japanese form for apology can co-occur with the form for thanking (arigatou)
where both are intended as part of an apology (thanking apologetically),
and as a way of phatic communication (like greetings); 2) Japanese
speakers tend to feel apologetic in more situations than British English
speakers; 3) Japanese speakers tend to feel the more apologetic when
their feeling of indebtedness is greater. However, apologies are often
employed when the hearer is relatively older in age and in a soto
‘outside’ relationship (e.g., an academic advisor), as opposed
to uchi ‘inside’ and yoso ‘somewhere else.’
Moriyama, T. (1999). Oreito owabi: Kankei syufukuno
sisutemu toshite (‘Gratutude and apologies: A system of repair’).
Kokubungaku: Kaishakuto kyouzaino kenkyu (Japanese Literature: Interpretation
and Material development), 44 (6), 78-82.
This article is an essay on gratitude and apology
expressions in Japanese as a repair strategy in interpersonal communication.
The motive for both gratitude and apologies is caused by a psychological
imbalance (or a sense of indebtedness) between the speaker and the
hearer. Expressions of gratitude and apologies both attempt to adjust
that imbalance. An expression of gratitude repairs the sense of imbalance
accompanied by a certain benefit on the part of the speaker offered
by the hearer. Apologies also repair the offense caused by the speaker.
Section 1: conceptual understanding of gratitude and apologies. Section
2: analysis of various expressions of gratitude and apologies. Section
3: sumimasen as an expression of gratitude. Section 4: responses
to expressions of gratitude and apologies. Section 5: phatic greeting
expressions including gokuro sama, otsukare sama, omedetou.
Nakata, T. (1989). Hatsuwa kouitoshiteno chinshato
kansha: Nichiei hikaku (‘Apology and Thanks in Japanese and English’).
Nihongo Kyouiku (Journal of Japanese Language Teaching), 68,
191-203.
This study compares English and Japanese apologies
and thanks collected in movie and TV drama scenarios (400 apologies
and 400 thanks in English and Japanese each). Major differences between
the two languages: 1) Japanese were more likely to thank for voluntary
assistance offered by the hearer; 2) Japanese more often apologized
for someone close to themselves than English speakers; 3) Japanese
thanking expressions included versatile expressions like sumimasen
that can be used both for apologies and thanks.
Ogawa, H. (1995). Kansha to wabino teishiki hyougen:
Bogowashano shiyou jitttaino cyousa karano bunseki (‘A study of
Japanese formulaic thanks and apologies: A data analysis of the use
by Japanese native speakers’). Nihongo Kyouiku (Journal of
Japanese Language Teaching), 85, 38-52.
This paper investigates formulaic expressions
of gratitude, which includes not only the variants of arigatou but
also those that can also convey apology (such as sumimasen).
Utilizing a questionnaire containing 19 thanking and 9 apologizing
situations, this study surveyed native speakers in their 20’s
to 80’s to reveal their usage of formulaic expressions of thanks
and apology. The informants were 221 females and 51 males of similar
educational backgrounds who spoke the standard variety of Japanese.
The variables manipulated in the survey were high/low status, in-group/out-group,
and closeness/distance. The findings suggest that the use of sumimasen
is not suitable for all thanking situations. Whereas in this study
the younger generation of speakers used sumimasen to express
slight thanks or apology to someone older and/or in out-group (soto
such as strangers), the older generation used it to friends or those
younger than themselves. Younger speakers used more formal apology
expressions (such as moushiwake arimasen) with someone older
(and higher in status) for a major infraction, since sumimasen was
used to express relatively slight thanks and minor apology.
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