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Thanking Formulae in English
Explorations across varieties and genres
In the present study the use of thanking formulae is examined across different genres and varieties of English. Data is taken from the British National Corpus and the Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English.
Employing a form-to-function mapping, thanking formulae are not only analysed quantitatively, but also qualitatively accounting for local contexts and genre. Additionally, the status of thanking formulae is examined in the most prominent models of politeness, and the interpersonal relation amongst the interlocutors is investigated. The first part is devoted to a variational analysis, which is supplemented by a genre perspective in the second part. The findings of the study contribute new insights to research on thanking (formulae), politeness, variational pragmatics and media discourse.
Employing a form-to-function mapping, thanking formulae are not only analysed quantitatively, but also qualitatively accounting for local contexts and genre. Additionally, the status of thanking formulae is examined in the most prominent models of politeness, and the interpersonal relation amongst the interlocutors is investigated. The first part is devoted to a variational analysis, which is supplemented by a genre perspective in the second part. The findings of the study contribute new insights to research on thanking (formulae), politeness, variational pragmatics and media discourse.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 230] 2013. xv, 308 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 18 March 2013
Published online on 18 March 2013
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
- List of tables | pp. xiii–xiv
- List of figures | pp. xv–15
- 1. Introduction | pp. 1–4
- 2. Setting the scene: Theoretical background | pp. 5–50
- 3. Methodology | pp. 51–80
- 4. Focus on varieties: Thanking formulae in British and New Zealand English | pp. 81–208
- 5. Focus on genre: Thanking formulae in radio texts | pp. 209–284
- 6. Conclusion | pp. 285–292
- Index | pp. 307–308
“An inspiring read, well-structured and parallel in the arrangement and presentation of elaborated criteria set up by the author herself. Amongst further noteworthy assets of the book are the detailed quantitative itemization and the many insightful and context-related discussions of the data, pointing out quite a number of formal and functional characteristics of TF that have been overlooked so far. Moreover, this study contributes to linguistic research on TF in spoken English – with radio phone-ins certainly representing an abundance of linguistic research potential.”
Monika Kirner, on pragmatics-reviews.org (2.2, 2014).
“The book makes important contributions to the field of variational pragmatics. It adds to the rather limited body of studies on varieties of English other than British and American English, in this case New Zealand English. It demonstrates a way to combine pragmatics research and corpus linguistics. In addition, it comprehensively explores thanking formulae and verifies the models of politeness against its findings, which makes the study unique in the field of pragmatics research. This book is recommended for researchers and students at the graduate level who are interested in pragmatics, sociolinguistics and politeness theories.”
Wei Ren, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, on Linguist List 25.165 (2014)
Cited by (27)
Cited by 27 other publications
Liang, Jiayi, Hang Su & Meng Huat Chau
2026. Patterns of thanking in Asian Englishes. English World-Wide. A Journal of Varieties of English
Hickey, Raymond
Róg, Tomasz
Su, Hang & Jun Ye
Su, Hang, Jun Ye & Ziyi Xiong
2025. Unveiling the sex differences and their diachronic changes of thanking in spoken British English. Pragmatics and Society
Gut, Ulrike & Foluke Olayinka Unuabonah
2024. Expressing gratitude in Nigerian English. English World-Wide. A Journal of Varieties of English 45:3 ► pp. 255 ff.
Hartmann, Stefan, Nils Hansson & Adrian Loerbroks
Rodríguez Somolinos, Amalia, F. Neveu, S. Prévost, A. Montébran, A. Steuckardt, G. Bergounioux, G. Merminod & G. Philippe
Aijmer, Karin
Funke, Nina
Brinton, Laurel J.
Culpeper, Jonathan, Samuel J. Oliver & Vittorio Tantucci
2021. Politeness reciprocity in Shakespeare’s dialogue. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 22:2 ► pp. 202 ff.
Schneider, Klaus P.
Schröder, Anne & Klaus P. Schneider
2021. A variational pragmatic approach to responses to thanks in
Namibian English. In The dynamics of English in Namibia [Varieties of English Around the World, G65], ► pp. 195 ff.
Felice, Rachele De
2019. Rühlemann, C. (2018). Corpus Linguistics for Pragmatics: A Guide for Research
. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 24:1 ► pp. 136 ff.
Schauer, Gila A.
Schauer, Gila A.
Schauer, Gila A.
Su, Hang
Su, Hang & Naixing Wei
2018. “I’m really sorry about what I said”. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 28:3 ► pp. 439 ff.
Mosegaard Hansen, Maj-Britt
2016. Patterns of thanking in the closing section of UK service calls. Pragmatics and Society 7:4 ► pp. 664 ff.
Mugford, Gerrard & Oscar Ramírez Cuevas
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 march 2026. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.