Five studies examined interventions to increase the frequency of expressions of gratitude by psychology students in two classes of a psychology course at a large university in southwest Virginia. Studies 1 and 4 included signing a paper when declaring an intention to express gratitude to people behaving prosocially, while studies 2, 3, and 5 included responding to writing prompts prior to declaring an intention to express gratitude. Students in one class of Study 5 were also offered Actively-Caring for People (AC4P) wristbands that served as "tangible reminders of kindness" (Geller, 2013). Students in all studies were given one week to express gratitude. Gratitude expression was measured by self-report on a survey administered during the psychology course. In all but the first and fourth studies, increased intentions to express gratitude were significantly higher in the Intervention class than the Control class. The impact of the interventions on reports of gratitude expression was inconsistent. Theoretical/methodological explanations and directions for future research are discussed. / Master of Science

Le Remerciement dans le Monde de Shakespeare : Contextes et Etudes de CasDans cette thèse nous explorons ce que le remerciement signifie à l’époque élisabéthaine et comment il se manifeste. Aussi nous analysons le remerciement tel qu’il est défini dans les dictionnaires d’e l’époque. Nous examinons également les textes religieux, les manuels de courtoisie, les traités de rhétorique qui mentionnent l’acte de remerciement. Après analysé ce contexte, nous abordons le remerciement comme acte de langage à la lumière de la pragmatique.On définit l’existence réelle du mot à partir de son degré d’influence sur le monde réel. Une simple combinaison de mots a le potentiel d’altérer une situation, n’importe laquelle. L’étude du pouvoir de la parole s’est inscrite dans le cadre théorique de ce que l’on appelle « la pragmatique ». Plus précisément, le concept « d’acte de langage » a été exploré non seulement dans la pragmatique mais aussi dans diverses disciplines ; telles que la philosophie du langage et aussi les études littéraires et théâtrales.Catherine Kerbrat Orecchioni (1984) a établi une distinction entre trois types de pragmatique : « énonciative », « illocutoire » et « conversationnelle » . Nous nous proposons d’étudier la seconde théorie qui est la pragmatique illocutoire où les valeurs illocutoires d’un énoncé sont parfaitement exploitées. Dans notre propos, les contextes d’énonciation que nous avons sélectionnés ne sont pas ordinaires. Car notre étude porte sur des fragments théâtraux tirés de Shakespeare avec leur complexité et leur particularité. Le théâtre est bien un lieu où dire est par excellence faire. Donc la parole dramatique est mise au service de l’action. Promettre dans un contexte réel peut s’accomplir différemment sur scène. En prenant l’hypothèse que le langage sert à faire avancer l’action, nous allons nous intéresser au « thank you » qui signifie «merci » en français dans les pièces de Shakespeare tout en étudiant les contextes d’énonciation du remercîment au cours de la période élisabéthaine. Notre objectif est de voir comment les différents concepts de la pragmatique élaborés permettent de dévoiler certains aspects pertinents du remerciement typiquement shakespearien. Cette forme d’analyse alimentera notre réflexion afin d’éclaircir la fonction du remerciement au théâtre. Il est aussi indispensable d’observer les modes de réalisation du remerciement de ces différentes scènes ainsi que le ton et le contexte. Dans un premier temps, l’élucidation de notre concept principal est primordiale. Que veut donc dire « remercier » ou de quoi s’agit-il quand on parle d’un acte de remerciement ?D’après l’Oxford English Dictionary (OED ), « thanks » veut dire : « to express gratitude or obligation to »; « to give the thanks or credit for something to consider or hold responsible »; « ironical use to blame »; « thank you for nothing an ironical expression indicating that the speaker thinks he has been offered nothing worth thanks ». On a aussi le « thank offering » qui a été utilisé en 1536 qui est expliqué « in the Levitical law, an offering presented as an expression of thankfulness or gratitude to god; hence an offering or gift made by way of thanks or acknowledgement ». Dans les textes de Shakespeare le terme « thank » a été employé sous plusieurs formes. Nous citons « thank, thankful, tank, dank, thanks ». On trouve bien aussi « gramercy » qui veut dire « grand merci ». Selon the Harvard Concordance le mot « thank » a été employé trois cent quarante-six fois et « thanks » deux cent deux fois. Citons comme example « Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss » (TMP, 2.1.124), « I thank god and my cold blood” (ADO, 1.1.130). “I am even poor in thanks but I thank you (HAM, 2.2.273). On trouve aussi le le terme Allemand « dank » qui a aussi été utilisé pour remercier dans « by gar, me dank you for dat » (WIV, 2.3.90). / Scenes of Thanking in Shakespeare’s World examines how Shakespeare makes of the word “thanks” and the expression “thank you” a dramatic art of thanking in his plays. Through this research, thanking scenes are selected according to the frequency of the word “thanks”. However, the occurrence of the word solely does not define a scene of thanking. Shakespeare’s plays incorporate verbal and non-verbal thanking. Verbal thanking occurs as a speech act or a polite answer to acknowledge or praise a benefit received, while a non-verbal thanking is sometimes presented under forms of social rituals and practices such as gift giving, sacrifice, prayer and religious songs. This thesis’ corpus is composed of history plays, Romeo and Juliet, All’s Well that Ends Well, Pericles, Timon of Athens, Coriolanus, and The Winter’s Tale. This selection is based on some criteria considered by the researcher, such as the frequency of the word in the scene or the play and its role in the plot or characters’ state of mind. Shakespeare artfully makes thanking an iconic code on the stage, creating conventionalised forms, expressions and contexts for it to be uttered.

表達感謝是人際關係裡最重要的語言功能之一。能夠在英語的環境裡適當地表達感謝對語言學習者來說是相當重要的語言行為。本研究旨在探討中美文化差異對感謝行為的影響以及中文母語文化對外語學習的影響。受試者分為三組：其中兩組為分別以英語和中文為母語的青少年，另一組為英語程度較佳且學習階段為國中的台灣英語學習者。在挑選受試者時，先讓受試者寫一份閱讀測驗，以區分英語能力的高低。向受試者蒐集感謝行為資料的工具為「言談情境填充問卷」。本研究同時使用量化及質化分析來比較兩組母語受試者的感謝行為表現並進一步檢視台灣英語學習者是否已學會使用英語感謝行為的語用規範。 本研究結果顯示：英語為母語者最常使用直接、明確的感謝策略，而最少使用間接的感謝策略如道歉及不作回應；中文為母語者則使用較多的間接感謝策略。然而，台灣英語學習者經歷語用失敗，並將中文的語用規範移轉到英語感謝行為。此外，教學誘發的失誤以及使用過多文字也導致英語學習者的感謝行為偏離英語語用規範。有鑑於此，本研究建議語言教學者應該幫助英語學習者將注意力放在文化差異對語言表達的影響，以提高他們的語用覺察。 / Thanking is one of the most important language functions in interpersonal relationships. It is also important for language learners to appropriately express gratitude in the target culture. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the expressions of gratitude by native American English speakers (NSE) and native Chinese speakers (NSC) and examine whether Taiwanese EFL adolescents had achieved native-like performance in L2 thanking. The American participants were teenagers in the United States. The EFL learners were given a reading test from the GEPT first in order to distinguish native Chinese speakers from EFL learners. Then, a discourse completion test (DCT) was administered to all three groups: English version for the NSE and EFL learners, and the Chinese version the NSC. The quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed to compare both native groups’ thanking performance and further determine if EFL learners had approximated the pragmatic norms of the target language. The results showed that NSE employed explicit thanking strategies most often, but apology and ‘others’ strategies and opt-out the least often. In contrast, NSC employed indirect thanking strategies such as apology and ‘others’ strategies more frequently than their American counterparts. However, the EFL learners had experienced pragmatic failure, transferring thanking strategies from L1 pragmatic norms to English. In addition, teaching-induced errors and waffle phenomenon were responsible for the learners’ deviations from native English norms. It is suggested that language teachers may help learners develop cultural awareness by drawing their attention to the similarities and differences between thanking behavior in one’s native culture and the target culture.

The aim of this thesis is to compare and contrast the ways in which native speakers of Turkish (NST) and native speakers of American English (NSAE) write the acknowledgment sections of their MA and PhD dissertations. The analysis in the study focuses on the pragmatic and discourse strategies used by the authors in the texts written in English. First, the study uncovers the organization of the dissertation acknowledgments and the thanking strategies employed in the acknowledgment sections written in English by native speakers of Turkish and American English in their MA and PhD dissertations. Then, the authors&rsquo / choices of expressions of gratitude for specific addressees (e.g., supervisors vs. friends) are discussed. Data examined in the study comprise 144 dissertations written by 72 NST and 72 NSAE and are collected from sources such as the National Theses Centre of The Council of Higher Education of Turkey, ProQuest dissertation services. The thesis aims to contribute to the areas of foreign language education, pragmatics and cross-cultural communication.

[pt] O objetivo desta pesquisa é descrever como os brasileiros realizam o ato de agradecer no português do Brasil, de forma a apresentar uma contribuição para a descrição do português como língua materna com aplicabilidade no português como segunda língua (PL2) e, assim, dar subsídios aos professores que se dedicam à tarefa de ensinar a língua portuguesa a alunos estrangeiros. O ato de agradecer no português do Brasil é um ritual que envolve uma variedade de recursos e estratégias às quais o falante nativo recorre, a fim de realizá-lo. Entretanto, vários fatores interferem no comportamento social e lingüístico dos brasileiros no momento em que realizam esse ato. A abordagem adotada tem como base a sociolingüística interacional, a comunicação intercultural e a antropologia cultural. O corpus utilizado neste trabalho formou-se a partir da análise de cenas do seriado A grande família, da Rede Globo de Televisão, exibidos entre 2003/2004, que retratam situações do cotidiano de uma família na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Os dados coletados foram complementados com a análise de três livros didáticos elaborados para o ensino de português para estrangeiros, que nos permitiram verificar de que forma o tema deste trabalho é apresentado ao aluno estrangeiro. Através dessas duas fontes de pesquisa, apresentamos então as principais expressões de agradecimento utilizadas pelos brasileiros e os fatores que interferem nas escolhas dos falantes nesse tipo de interação. / [en] The objective of this work is to analyse how the Brazilian people show or express acts of thanking and also to bring a contribuition to the description of the Portuguese language so as to contribute to its approach as a second language (PL2), thus helping the teachers in their task of giving lesson to foreigner. In the Brazilian Portuguese the act of thanking is a kind of ritual that involves a variety of verbal and non-verbal resources, which are employed by the native speaker in order to realize it adequately. However, we have to consider as well that multiple factors interfere in the social and linguistic behavior of the Brazilian people at the time they realize this act of communication . This research is theorelically based on the Sociolinguistic Interactional, on the Intercultural Communication and also on the Cultural Anthropology. The corpus of this work was formed from the analysis of scenes of a TV sit-com named A grande família presented by Rede Globo de Televisão during the years of 2003 and 2004. The presented scenes reproduce the common behavior of a regular family in Rio de Janeiro. The study observing the use of thanks among the characters was complemented with the analysis of three textbooks for the teaching of Portuguese as second language. Based on these two sources, we decided to investigate the main expressions of thanking used by Brazilians, as well as the factors that interfere in the choices of the speakers in this type of interaction.