Speech act of gratitude as a speech ritual in modern English - Дипломная работа

Diploma paper “Speech Act of Gratitude as a Speech Ritual in Modern English” Content Introduction Part 1. Theoretical aspects of gratitude act and dialogic discourse 1.1 Modern English speech features 1.2 Specific features of gratitude act Part 2. Practical aspects of gratitude expressions use 2.1 Gratitude act in Modern English 2.2 Examples of gratitude expressions in Modern English Conclusion Bibliography Introduction Today English is incredibly wide-spread and it is constantly expanding. The main reason for this, in my opinion, is because of the media. The first medium through which English is, and was, spread is through newspapers. Everybody needs to know what is going on, in not only their country, but abroad as well. Newspapers are the main publication which are indispensable, because no matter what scientific or technological developments are created, the world will still need this type of information delivered through this simple and cost-effective medium. This is why the fact that five thousand newspapers, more than half of the newspapers published in the world, are published in English, is so important to the constant growth of the English language. Television and cinema are other forms of media which greatly helped English get to the position it has reached today. The technology of this industry was first developed in Europe and America during the 19th Century, and by 1900, Britain and France were leading the way in the art of filmmaking. The First World War stopped them in their tracks however, which gave America the chance to gain dominance within the field. Feature films were developed, and the actors became stars across the world, thus solidifying Americas control over the film industry, which it still maintains today. Their industry is the largest and richest, and therefore the films which are produced, are sent off all around the world where they are subtitled (or dubbed). Through watching these movies, people abroad are learning the English language, whilst being entertained. The same can be said of the power which American television has over the world, and its obvious benefits. For example, two hundred and fifty million Chinese people (more than the population of the United States itself) are learning English on TV. Popular culture, in particular pop music, also affected and is still affecting the growth and spread of the English language. English language is widely used now in the business sphere, in the process of negotiations. That is why it is very important to know and properly use some set expressions such as introduction, summarization, gratitude etc. Gratitude, like other positive emotions, has inspired many theological and philosophical writings, but it has inspired very little vigorous, empirical research. In an effort to remedy this oversight, this paper brings together ideas from various disciplines to examine what has become known as the most-neglected emotion. Many studies have been done to examine the ways in which compliments are used and responded to (Pomerantz 1978; Wolfson and Manes 1980; Holmes 1986). Little attention, however, has been paid to how thank you expressions are used and responded to. Coulmas (1981) contrasts thanks and apologies using some European languages and Japanese. Eisenstein and Bodman (1986) compare expressions of gratitude by native and non-native speakers of English to evaluate English-learners abilities to express gratitude in the second language [14]. They concentrate on the comparisons, but fail to develop the various uses and functions of thanking expressions in American English. Furthermore, neither gives a detailed description of responses to thank you. Regarding the above-mentioned facts, the topic of our investigation has been chosen to be “Speech Act of Gratitude as a Speech Ritual in Modern English”. The topicality of our investigation is predetermined by the necessity to determine the importance of speech act of gratitude in modern English and specify specific features of gratitude act within the modern English speaking society conditions. The object of our investigation is speech act of gratitude. The subject of the investigation is importance gratitude ritual in modern English. The objective of our investigation is to characterize the speech act of gratitude as a speech ritual in modern English. To gain the objective of our investigation we have determined the following tasks of the investigation: - to consider Modern English speech features: - determine specific features of gratitude act; - investigate the gratitude act in Modern English; - select examples of gratitude expressions in Modern English. The theoretical value of the paper is to sum up theoretical material on the topic of our investigation. The practical value of our investigation is the possibility of using its results in the process of teaching students the English language communication. The structure of the investigation. The paper consists of the introduction, two