**4.3 Direct expressions of gratitude**

Direct expressions of gratitude occur in the data in many different ways. In most cases, the respondents use the word *merci* "Thanks," which in some cases is accompanied by modifiers such as adverbs (*merci beaucoup* "thanks a lot"), address terms (*merci mon frère* "thanks my brother"), adjectives (*grand merci* "big thank you"), interjections (*oh merci* "oh thanks"), or combinations of many intensifiers (*merci beaucoup professeur* "thank you very much professor").

Another direct strategy consists in expressing gratitude and stating the beneficial action at the same time. This type appears in the form of *merci de/pour* + *NP (Merci beaucoup pour/de votre aide* "thanks very much for your help," *Une fois de plus merci pour votre indulgence* "once again thank you for your indulgence"), and *merci de VP* (*Merci mon ami d'avoir payé la note* "thanks my friend for having paid my bill").


**145**

*Thanking in Cameroon French*

the bill".

ing you."

as in (4–6).

*je te dis merci* "I say thanks."

*vous. Encore merci!* (stranger)

without you. Thanks again."

(professor)

marized in **Table 3**.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86140*

A third direct strategy found in the data is the performative utterance *je te/ vous remercie* "I thank you," which may be modified in many different ways. Some respondents use adverbs and address terms to upgrade the illocutionary force of the performative utterance, as in *professeur je vous remercie sincèrement* "Professor I sincerely thank you"; *je te remercie beaucoup mon ami* "I thank you very much my friend." In other examples, the performative utterance is followed by a statement of the favor/beneficial action as in *je vous remercie infiniment pour la faveur que vous m'avez accordée* "I thank you very much for the favor you have given me" and *je te remercie beaucoup d'avoir payé* "I thank you very much for having settled

Also attested are examples in which the participants indicate their inability to express their gratitude as in *monsieur je ne sais pas comment vous remercier* pour votre générosité "Sir, I do not know how to thank you for your generosity." Some participants indicate lack of words to articulate their gratitude as in *Les mots me manquent pour exprimer ma gratitude pour cette faveur* "I lack word to express my gratitude for this favor" and *Je ne saurais vous remercier autant* "I can't thank you enough." Also attested are expressions of long term/permanent gratitude/indebtedness as in *je ne cesserai de vous dire merci* "I won't stop thank-

The data also consist of examples in which the participants state their desire to express their gratitude as in *Professeur, je tiens/tenais à vous remercier de m'avoir accordé un autre délai* "Professor, I want(ed) to thank you for giving me another deadline"; *Monsieur, je voudrais bien vous remercier pour ce vous m'avez fait*. The following examples were also found in the data: *Je n'ai qu'une chose à vous dire merci et mille fois merci* "I have only one thing to tell you thanks and thousand thanks";

Overall, the performative utterances and their variants are intended to maximize

the expression of sincerity in the gratitude expressed and to maximize its acceptance by the interlocutor, and these direct strategies mostly appear in the professor situation (see **Table 2**). It is worth mentioning that direct thanks appear in the data either alone or in combination with indirect thanks and/or supportive acts,

4.*Merci mon ami d'avoir payé. Prochainement c'est moi qui paye* (friend) "Thanks my friend for paying. Next time I will foot the bill."

5.*Je vous remercie beaucoup pour votre aide. Je ne sais pas ce que j'aurais fait sans* 

"I thank you so much for your help. I do not know what I could have done

6.*Professeur, je tiens à vous remercier de m'avoir accordé un autre délai. Grâce à cela, j'ai pu réaliser mon rapport de recherche. Une fois de plus merci monsieur*

"Professor, I would like to thank you for giving me an extension. Thanks to this, I was able to complete my research report. Once again thank you sir."

The frequencies and situation distribution of direct thanks strategies are sum-

**Table 3** shows that the participants most frequently use the word *merci* accompanied by various types of modification devices (adverbs, address terms, interjections, etc.) to realize direct thanks. This strategy appears in 223 (54.8%) instances of the 407 tokens of direct thanks, and it is mostly employed by the respondents

**Table 2.**

*Distribution of simple and complex expressions of gratitude.*

#### *Thanking in Cameroon French DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86140*

*Heritage*

thanks.

**4.2 Complexity/length of expressions of gratitude**

sincerity in expressing gratitude to a superior.

*beaucoup professeur* "thank you very much professor").

*Distribution of simple and complex expressions of gratitude.*

**4.3 Direct expressions of gratitude**

The analysis of the complexity of the thanks utterances in the corpus reveals that the participants employ simple thanks as well as complex thanks. Simple expressions of gratitude consist of one act/move as in *merci beaucoup* "thank you very much" or *c'est très gentil (de ta part)* "that's very kind of you." As can be seen in **Table 2**, the respondents most frequently use complex gratitude expressions, i.e., those made up of several acts/moves as in (1), (2), and (3). In (1), the second gratitude expression (*C'est gentil de ta part*) is intended to intensify the illocutionary force of the first one (*Merci beaucoup*). Example (2) consists of three moves. The first two acts "*Merci*" *and* "*je ne sais comment vous remercier"* are used to express the speaker's gratitude, while the third move "*Ça vous dirait de prendre un verre ensemble?*" serves to intensify the two preceding gratitude expressions. In (3), the speaker expresses his gratitude using a combination of three moves: a familiarization act (*Monsieur je suis l'étudiant à qui vous avez accordé un autre délai pour la remise du travail*), a presentation of the work (*voici le rapport*), and an expression of gratitude (*je vous remercie pour votre compréhension*). ([24], p. 131) argues that combinations of several moves in the expression of gratitude appear to be more polite than simple

The analysis also reveals that the distribution of simple and complex gratitude expressions varies across the three situations. Of the 111 simple expressions identified in the data, there are 47 tokens in the professor situation, 47 in the stranger situation, and only 17 in the friend situation. Complex gratitude expressions are more commonly employed in the friend situation. However, it is worth mentioning that complex utterances are generally much longer in the professor situation than in the other two situations: they are employed in order to emphasize the speaker's

The next section focuses on the realization patterns and distribution of the

Direct expressions of gratitude occur in the data in many different ways. In most cases, the respondents use the word *merci* "Thanks," which in some cases is accompanied by modifiers such as adverbs (*merci beaucoup* "thanks a lot"), address terms (*merci mon frère* "thanks my brother"), adjectives (*grand merci* "big thank you"), interjections (*oh merci* "oh thanks"), or combinations of many intensifiers (*merci* 

Another direct strategy consists in expressing gratitude and stating the beneficial action at the same time. This type appears in the form of *merci de/pour* + *NP (Merci beaucoup pour/de votre aide* "thanks very much for your help," *Une fois de plus merci pour votre indulgence* "once again thank you for your indulgence"), and *merci de VP* (*Merci mon ami d'avoir payé la note* "thanks my friend for having paid

Simple expressions of gratitude 17 (12.2%) 47 (34.3%) 47 (34.8%) 111 (27%) Complex expressions of gratitude 122 (87.8%) 90 (65.7%) 88 (65.2%) 300 (73%) Total 139 (100%) 137 (100%) 135 (100%) 411 (100%)

**Friend Stranger Professor Total**

direct thanks, indirect thanks, and supportive acts found in the data.

**144**

**Table 2.**

my bill").

A third direct strategy found in the data is the performative utterance *je te/ vous remercie* "I thank you," which may be modified in many different ways. Some respondents use adverbs and address terms to upgrade the illocutionary force of the performative utterance, as in *professeur je vous remercie sincèrement* "Professor I sincerely thank you"; *je te remercie beaucoup mon ami* "I thank you very much my friend." In other examples, the performative utterance is followed by a statement of the favor/beneficial action as in *je vous remercie infiniment pour la faveur que vous m'avez accordée* "I thank you very much for the favor you have given me" and *je te remercie beaucoup d'avoir payé* "I thank you very much for having settled the bill".

Also attested are examples in which the participants indicate their inability to express their gratitude as in *monsieur je ne sais pas comment vous remercier* pour votre générosité "Sir, I do not know how to thank you for your generosity." Some participants indicate lack of words to articulate their gratitude as in *Les mots me manquent pour exprimer ma gratitude pour cette faveur* "I lack word to express my gratitude for this favor" and *Je ne saurais vous remercier autant* "I can't thank you enough." Also attested are expressions of long term/permanent gratitude/indebtedness as in *je ne cesserai de vous dire merci* "I won't stop thanking you."

The data also consist of examples in which the participants state their desire to express their gratitude as in *Professeur, je tiens/tenais à vous remercier de m'avoir accordé un autre délai* "Professor, I want(ed) to thank you for giving me another deadline"; *Monsieur, je voudrais bien vous remercier pour ce vous m'avez fait*. The following examples were also found in the data: *Je n'ai qu'une chose à vous dire merci et mille fois merci* "I have only one thing to tell you thanks and thousand thanks"; *je te dis merci* "I say thanks."

Overall, the performative utterances and their variants are intended to maximize the expression of sincerity in the gratitude expressed and to maximize its acceptance by the interlocutor, and these direct strategies mostly appear in the professor situation (see **Table 2**). It is worth mentioning that direct thanks appear in the data either alone or in combination with indirect thanks and/or supportive acts, as in (4–6).


"I thank you so much for your help. I do not know what I could have done without you. Thanks again."

6.*Professeur, je tiens à vous remercier de m'avoir accordé un autre délai. Grâce à cela, j'ai pu réaliser mon rapport de recherche. Une fois de plus merci monsieur* (professor)

"Professor, I would like to thank you for giving me an extension. Thanks to this, I was able to complete my research report. Once again thank you sir."

The frequencies and situation distribution of direct thanks strategies are summarized in **Table 3**.

**Table 3** shows that the participants most frequently use the word *merci* accompanied by various types of modification devices (adverbs, address terms, interjections, etc.) to realize direct thanks. This strategy appears in 223 (54.8%) instances of the 407 tokens of direct thanks, and it is mostly employed by the respondents


#### **Table 3.**

*Distribution of direct expressions of gratitude.*

in both the professor and the stranger situations with fairly equal distribution (76 tokens, i.e., 34%) in the professor situation and 75 examples, i.e., 33.6% in the stranger situation. The frequency of this strategy is a bit lower in the friend situation (72 tokens, i.e., 32.4%).

The second most common direct strategy is the use of performative utterances. This strategy represents 72 (17.7%) tokens of all direct thanks. With respect to situational distribution, **Table 3** indicates that this strategy mostly occurs in the professor situation (49 tokens of 72 attested occurrences, i.e., 68%). The high number of such expressions in this situation may be due to the level of formality and the weight of the favor granted by the superior.

The third strategy is the use of the word *merci* alone. It represents 63 (15.5%) instances of all direct thanks. It appears mostly in the friend (33 tokens) and the stranger (28 tokens) situations. The very low number of *merci* in the professor situation (only two examples) is probably due to the fact that this simple form would appear to be very impolite in an asymmetrical situation, where the student has received a huge (unmerited) favor from their professor. In other words, a simple thanks would not be sufficient to express the debt of gratitude of the speaker. As can be seen in **Table 3**, the low number of *merci* is compensated by a very high frequency of *merci* with intensifiers and a very high frequency of performative utterances.

The fourth strategy is the use of the word *merci* followed by statements of the favor. It appears in 49 (12%) instances of all direct thanks and is mostly employed in the stranger (20 tokens) and the professor (19 instances) situations. After discussing types of direct thanks, let us now turn to the strategies employed to express gratitude indirectly.

#### **4.4 Indirect expressions of gratitude**

The participants produced 267 tokens of indirect gratitude expressions. As can be seen in **Table 4**, six types of speech acts were used in the data to realize indirect thanks: (a) praising the addressee, (b) promising to compensate, (c) praising the act, (d) expressing indebtedness, (e) expressing wishes, and (f) expressing lack of obligation or necessity for the act. The three most frequent types in the data, namely "praising the addressee," "promising to compensate," and "praising the act," represent more than 70% of all tokens of indirect gratitude expressions.

The results also show that the speech acts employed as indirect gratitude expressions are distributed differently across the three situations. As seen in **Table 4**, the participants used more praises of the addressee in the stranger situation (54 tokens: 63.5%) than in the other two situations (friend (23 tokens: 27%), professor (8 tokens: 9.5%)). The "promising to compensate" strategy only occurs in the

**147**

(stranger)

*Thanking in Cameroon French*

*4.4.1 Praising the addressee*

*Types of indirect expressions of gratitude.*

**Table 4.**

character (cf. [10], p. 103).

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86140*

friend situation. The third most frequent indirect gratitude expression, "praising the act," is mostly used in the friend (28 instances: 48.3%) and professor situations (24 tokens: 41.4%). In contrast, the fourth type, "expressing indebtedness," is most

**Types of indirect gratitude expressions Friend Stranger Professor Total** Praising the addressee 23 54 8 85 (31.8%) Promising to compensate 64 0 0 64 (24%) Praising the act 28 7 25 58 (22.4%) Expressing indebtedness 11 4 25 40 (15%) Expressing wishes 2 5 8 15 (5.6%) Expressing lack of obligation or necessity 0 3 0 3 (1.2%) Total 128 73 66 267 (100%)

Let us now examine the individual speech acts employed as indirect thanks and

This strategy serves to return the favor to the addressee by indicating that s/ he has done something good. By employing this strategy, the speaker does two things simultaneously: s/he expresses his/her gratitude for the favor and highlights attributes such as kindness, generosity, indulgence, etc., as the driving force of the addressee's action. In this sense, this type of indirect thanks is a positive politeness strategy and it is employed to notice and approve the addressee's remarkable

The examples attested show that the respondents mostly employ constructions like: *c'est (vraiment) gentil (de ta/votre part/à vous)* "that's (very) kind of you," *tu es vraiment gentile* "you are really nice," (C'est) *très amiable de votre part* "that is very kind of you," *c'est vraiment sympa* "that's really nice," *vous êtres vraiment serviable* "you are really helpful," *quelle gentillesse* "how nice," etc. Generally, praises of the addressee are associated with other indirect gratitude expressions as in (7) and/or with direct gratitude expressions as in (8) and (9). Some of the praises focus on the

7.*Ce fut gentil de votre part et j'en suis vraiment reconnaissant* (professor)

9.*Merci beaucoup, les gens comme toi on les compte du bout des doigts* (stranger)

10. *Merci de m'avoir aidé à ramasser mes documents. Je ne savais pas qu'une jolie fille comme vous pouvait m'aider jusqu'à ramasser mes feuilles pour me remettre*

"Thanks for helping to pick up the documents. I did not know that a pretty

frequent in the professor situation (25 tokens: 62.5%).

physical appearance of the addressee as in (10).

"That was kind of you and I'm really grateful."

8.*Merci de votre geste. Ce fut très gentil de votre part* (stranger) "Thanks for your gesture. That was very kind of you."

"Thanks very much, people like you are very rare."

lady like you could help me pick my papers."

describe their pragmatic functions and realization patterns.


**Table 4.**

*Heritage*

**Table 3.**

*interjections, etc.*

tion (72 tokens, i.e., 32.4%).

*Merci* + *adverbs/address terms/adjectives,* 

*Distribution of direct expressions of gratitude.*

mative utterances.

gratitude indirectly.

**4.4 Indirect expressions of gratitude**

weight of the favor granted by the superior.

in both the professor and the stranger situations with fairly equal distribution (76 tokens, i.e., 34%) in the professor situation and 75 examples, i.e., 33.6% in the stranger situation. The frequency of this strategy is a bit lower in the friend situa-

This strategy represents 72 (17.7%) tokens of all direct thanks. With respect to situational distribution, **Table 3** indicates that this strategy mostly occurs in the professor situation (49 tokens of 72 attested occurrences, i.e., 68%). The high number of such expressions in this situation may be due to the level of formality and the

The second most common direct strategy is the use of performative utterances.

*Merci* 33 28 2 63 (15.5%)

*Merci de/pour* + *NP/VP* 10 20 19 49 (12%) *Je te/vous remercie and variants* 8 15 49 72 (17.7%) Total 123 138 146 407 (100%)

**Friend Stranger Professor Total**

72 75 76 223 (54.8%)

The third strategy is the use of the word *merci* alone. It represents 63 (15.5%) instances of all direct thanks. It appears mostly in the friend (33 tokens) and the stranger (28 tokens) situations. The very low number of *merci* in the professor situation (only two examples) is probably due to the fact that this simple form would appear to be very impolite in an asymmetrical situation, where the student has received a huge (unmerited) favor from their professor. In other words, a simple thanks would not be sufficient to express the debt of gratitude of the speaker. As can be seen in **Table 3**, the low number of *merci* is compensated by a very high frequency of *merci* with intensifiers and a very high frequency of perfor-

The fourth strategy is the use of the word *merci* followed by statements of the favor. It appears in 49 (12%) instances of all direct thanks and is mostly employed in the stranger (20 tokens) and the professor (19 instances) situations. After discussing types of direct thanks, let us now turn to the strategies employed to express

The participants produced 267 tokens of indirect gratitude expressions. As can be seen in **Table 4**, six types of speech acts were used in the data to realize indirect thanks: (a) praising the addressee, (b) promising to compensate, (c) praising the act, (d) expressing indebtedness, (e) expressing wishes, and (f) expressing lack of obligation or necessity for the act. The three most frequent types in the data, namely "praising the addressee," "promising to compensate," and "praising the act,"

The results also show that the speech acts employed as indirect gratitude expres-

sions are distributed differently across the three situations. As seen in **Table 4**, the participants used more praises of the addressee in the stranger situation (54 tokens: 63.5%) than in the other two situations (friend (23 tokens: 27%), professor (8 tokens: 9.5%)). The "promising to compensate" strategy only occurs in the

represent more than 70% of all tokens of indirect gratitude expressions.

**146**

*Types of indirect expressions of gratitude.*

friend situation. The third most frequent indirect gratitude expression, "praising the act," is mostly used in the friend (28 instances: 48.3%) and professor situations (24 tokens: 41.4%). In contrast, the fourth type, "expressing indebtedness," is most frequent in the professor situation (25 tokens: 62.5%).

Let us now examine the individual speech acts employed as indirect thanks and describe their pragmatic functions and realization patterns.

## *4.4.1 Praising the addressee*

This strategy serves to return the favor to the addressee by indicating that s/ he has done something good. By employing this strategy, the speaker does two things simultaneously: s/he expresses his/her gratitude for the favor and highlights attributes such as kindness, generosity, indulgence, etc., as the driving force of the addressee's action. In this sense, this type of indirect thanks is a positive politeness strategy and it is employed to notice and approve the addressee's remarkable character (cf. [10], p. 103).

The examples attested show that the respondents mostly employ constructions like: *c'est (vraiment) gentil (de ta/votre part/à vous)* "that's (very) kind of you," *tu es vraiment gentile* "you are really nice," (C'est) *très amiable de votre part* "that is very kind of you," *c'est vraiment sympa* "that's really nice," *vous êtres vraiment serviable* "you are really helpful," *quelle gentillesse* "how nice," etc. Generally, praises of the addressee are associated with other indirect gratitude expressions as in (7) and/or with direct gratitude expressions as in (8) and (9). Some of the praises focus on the physical appearance of the addressee as in (10).


"Thanks for helping to pick up the documents. I did not know that a pretty lady like you could help me pick my papers."

#### *4.4.2 Promising to compensate*

The speaker promises to reimburse what the addressee has spent for them. This type occurs only in the friend situation. This result is due to the nature of the situation. The addressee had spent some money to pay for a friend's lunch. Despite the friendship, the addressee was not obliged/did not expect to spend his/her money in that manner and the friend did not have the right to oblige him/her to do so. Consequently, the speaker deems it appropriate to thank the friend for the kind gesture and to return the favor by reimbursing the money spent for him/her. This type of indirect thanks could be interpreted as a politeness strategy with two functions: it helps to save the face of the person who benefited from the favor granted and to restore balance/cohesion/harmony in the relationship.

This strategy appears in two realization patterns. The first pattern consists in promising to refund the money spent by the friend. In this case, the respondents mostly use constructions like: *je te rembourserai* "I will reimburse you," *je te rembourse très prochainement* "I will reimburse very soon," *je te rendrai la somme que tu as payée pour moi* "I will refund you the amount you spent for me," *Une fois à la maison je te restituerai l'argent* "Once we get home I will pay you back the money," etc. The second pattern consists in promising to settle the bill next time. In this case, the participants employ constructions like: *C'est moi qui vais payer prochainement* "I am the one to settle the bill next time," *la prochaine fois tu mangeras à mes frais* "the next time you will eat at my expense/next time I will settle the bill," etc. Another construction employed to promise repayment is *je te revaudrai ça un jour* "I will repay you someday." It is less used than the other structures. Also attested are the constructions *ça va gérer* and *on va gérér* that are also employed as promises to reimburse the money spent. In most of the examples attested, this strategy is associated with direct gratitude expressions as in (11) and/or comments as in (12).


"Oh, it's really embarrassing I am ashamed. I promise you that we will have lunch on Saturday and I will settle the bill, right."

#### *4.4.3 Praising the act*

Contrary to praises of the addressee, the praises in question in this section are made to express gratitude while highlighting the value of the beneficial action. While praises of the addressee are explicit face-flattering strategies, positive comments on the beneficial action could be considered as implicit face-enhancing strategies. Praises of the favor appear in two different patterns. The first pattern consists in simply describing the act as good helpful, kind, great, immense, etc., as in (13) (*Vous m'avez rendu un grand service*). The second pattern consists in explicitly stressing the outcome of the act. More specifically, the speaker indicates that the addressee's intervention/action/favor really saved the speaker from an embarrassing or humiliating situation as in (14). In (15), the speaker says that the extra time granted by the professor saved them from a disaster. Also attested are examples in which the speaker indicates that s/he really appreciates the action of the addressee, using constructions like *ce geste m'a vraiment marqué me va droit au coeur/me touche* as in (16).

**149**

collaboration.

*4.4.5 Expressing wishes*

*Thanking in Cameroon French*

(friend)

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86140*

"I sincerely thank you. You did me a great favor."

*énorme service* (professor)

*de mon travail* (professor)

*4.4.4 Expressing indebtedness*

would have been in with my work."

*contribue à la réalisation de tes rêves* (stranger)

May God make your dreams come true."

13. *Je vous remercie sincèrement de votre compréhension, vous m'aviez rendu un* 

14. *Merci gars! Si tu n'avais pas été là cela aura été honteux et humiliant pour moi*

"Thanks man. If you were not there it would have been embarrassing for me."

15. *Je vous remercie grandement monsieur, sans votre faveur je n'imagine pas le désastre* 

"I sincerely thank you sir, without your favor I can't imagine the disaster I

16. *Merci beaucoup! C'est gentil de ta part. Ce geste me va droit au cœur. Que Dieu* 

This type is employed to express the speaker's indebtedness toward the addressee. The respondents mostly use the construction *je vous suis reconnaissant* "I am grateful," with variations regarding the intensity/sincerity and time frame of the indebtedness. While adverbs such as *vraiment*, *très*, etc., are used by the participants to express sincerity *as in j'en suis vraiment reconnaissant*/*je vous suis très reconnaissant* "I am really grateful," adverbs such as *infiniment, toujours, éternellement*, etc., seem to emphasize long-term indebtedness as in *je vous/te serai toujours reconnaissant* "I will always be grateful." Apart from these utterances, the respondents also employ constructions like: *Je te revaudrai ça* "I owe you,*" je te dois une fière chandelle* "I owe you," *je te suis redevable* "I owe you," *c'est une dette que j'ai envers vous* "It's a debt I owe you." The analysis also reveals that this strategy is highly recurrent in the professor situation. This could be explained by the nature of the situation and the type of favor granted to the speaker. The professor granted the student's request for extra time to submit an assignment. By choosing the expression of indebtedness, the student intends not only to stress the level of sincerity in gratitude expression but also to reinforce the student-professor relationship. This strategy seems to be vital in such situation as the student does not exclude the possibility of future requests of this nature. Therefore, using such a strategy not only convinces the addressee to accept the thanks. It also builds a solid platform for a harmonious student-professor

This strategy consists mostly in invoking blessings upon the addressee. The speaker is saying indirectly: "since you have been so kind to me, I wish you well and I invoke God's blessings upon you." The most frequent construction used to pray to God to bless the addressee is *Que Dieu te/vous bénisse*! "May God bless you." This construction is, in some cases, modified by replacing the verb *bénir* "to bless" with *récompneser* "to recompense," *protéger/garder* "to protect," etc., as in *C'est Dieu qui vous récompensera* "God will reward you"; *Dieu vous bénira* "God will bless you"; *Que Dieu vous garde et vous bénisse*. "May God protect and bless you"; *Que Dieu vous protège* "May God protect you." Some informants use more complex structure to wish their interlocutors well as in *Que Dieu contribue à la réalisation de tes rêves* "May

"Thanks very much. That's very kind of you. I really appreciate this gesture.

*4.4.2 Promising to compensate*

ments as in (12).

*note OK?* (friend)

*4.4.3 Praising the act*

restore balance/cohesion/harmony in the relationship.

The speaker promises to reimburse what the addressee has spent for them. This type occurs only in the friend situation. This result is due to the nature of the situation. The addressee had spent some money to pay for a friend's lunch. Despite the friendship, the addressee was not obliged/did not expect to spend his/her money in that manner and the friend did not have the right to oblige him/her to do so. Consequently, the speaker deems it appropriate to thank the friend for the kind gesture and to return the favor by reimbursing the money spent for him/her. This type of indirect thanks could be interpreted as a politeness strategy with two functions: it helps to save the face of the person who benefited from the favor granted and to

This strategy appears in two realization patterns. The first pattern consists in promising to refund the money spent by the friend. In this case, the respondents mostly use constructions like: *je te rembourserai* "I will reimburse you," *je te rembourse très prochainement* "I will reimburse very soon," *je te rendrai la somme que tu as payée pour moi* "I will refund you the amount you spent for me," *Une fois à la maison je te restituerai l'argent* "Once we get home I will pay you back the money," etc. The second pattern consists in promising to settle the bill next time. In this case, the participants employ constructions like: *C'est moi qui vais payer prochainement* "I am the one to settle the bill next time," *la prochaine fois tu mangeras à mes frais* "the next time you will eat at my expense/next time I will settle the bill," etc. Another construction employed to promise repayment is *je te revaudrai ça un jour* "I will repay you someday." It is less used than the other structures. Also attested are the constructions *ça va gérer* and *on va gérér* that are also employed as promises to reimburse the money spent. In most of the examples attested, this strategy is associated with direct gratitude expressions as in (11) and/or com-

11. *Merci mon ami d'avoir payé. Prochainement c'est moi qui paye* (friend) "Thanks my friend for having paid the bill. Next time it's on me."

lunch on Saturday and I will settle the bill, right."

12. *Ah, c'est tellement gênant j'ai honte. Je te promets samedi on déjeune et je paie la* 

"Oh, it's really embarrassing I am ashamed. I promise you that we will have

Contrary to praises of the addressee, the praises in question in this section are made to express gratitude while highlighting the value of the beneficial action. While praises of the addressee are explicit face-flattering strategies, positive comments on the beneficial action could be considered as implicit face-enhancing strategies. Praises of the favor appear in two different patterns. The first pattern consists in simply describing the act as good helpful, kind, great, immense, etc., as in (13) (*Vous m'avez rendu un grand service*). The second pattern consists in explicitly stressing the outcome of the act. More specifically, the speaker indicates that the addressee's intervention/action/favor really saved the speaker from an embarrassing or humiliating situation as in (14). In (15), the speaker says that the extra time granted by the professor saved them from a disaster. Also attested are examples in which the speaker indicates that s/he really appreciates the action of the addressee, using constructions like *ce geste m'a vraiment marqué me va droit au coeur/me touche*

**148**

as in (16).


"Thanks man. If you were not there it would have been embarrassing for me."

