**4.6 Intensification of gratitude expressions**

The respondents use many different strategies to intensify their gratitude expressions. The analysis reveals that direct thanks are the most frequently intensified in the corpus. Our analysis focused on three types of intensification. The first type consists in the use of lexical intensifiers such as adverbs and nominal address terms in direct gratitude expressions. **Table 6** summarizes the distribution of the lexical intensifiers across the three situations.

The second type of intensification consists in mentioning the object of gratitude. **Table 7** presents the distribution of this type in the data.

The third type of intensification consists in the combination of different types of gratitude expressions. The most common patterns found in the data involve the combinations of direct gratitude expressions and indirect gratitude expressions. The most preferred combinations in the friend situation are, in decreasing order, *merci* + *promise to reimburse* (41 examples), *merci/je te remercie* + *praising the act* (27 tokens), and *merci* + *praising the addressee* (9 instances). The most frequent combinations in the stranger situation are *merci/je vous remercie* + *praising the addressee* (46 tokens) and *merci/je vous remercie* + *praising the act* (7 examples). The predominant combination in the professor situation is *merci/je vous remercie* + *appreciation of the act* (19 examples). The other combinations are very diverse.


#### **Table 6.**

*Distribution of lexical intensification devices (adverbs and address terms) across the three situations.*


#### **Table 7.**

*Mentioning the object of gratitude across the three situations.*


**155**

*Thanking in Cameroon French*

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

**4.7 The use of nominal address terms**

**5. Discussion and conclusion**

value of the gratitude expressions in which they occur.

The analysis also reveals that a number of nominal address terms were employed in the thanks utterances. The pragmatic functions of such terms are to signal and draw attention to existing as well as intended relationships between the speaker and the hearer and to upgrade the illocutionary value of the thanks utterances. As can be seen in **Table 8**, the participants employed 130 instances of nominal forms of address and the vast majority of these terms appear in the professor situation. The nominal forms of address attested in the friend and the stranger situations consist mainly of kinship and solidarity terms: their pragmatic role is to express closeness and solidarity to the interlocutors (friends and strangers). The terms used in the professor situation express respect and deference. In the three situations, the nominal address terms contribute, as already indicated, in enhancing the relational

The aim of this study was to examine some pragmatic aspects of Cameroon French, focusing on expressions of gratitude. Using data provided by a group of University students, the analysis reveals the use of a wide range of strategies to express gratitude in situations involving close friends, strangers, and professors. Overall, factors such as the weight of the favor granted/received, level of familiarity between the speaker and the hearer, and power distance between the interaction partners played an important role in the choices and combinations of thanks strategies. As far as the complexity of the utterances is concerned, the informants mostly used complex gratitude expressions. The complexity of the utterances is due to the fact that the proper gratitude expressions are either repeated or combined with a number of other speech acts with various pragmatic functions (familiarization, comments, apologies, encouragements, etc.). Such complexity helps the speakers to give thanks while performing other face-saving and/or face-enhancing activities. The results show, for instance, that the familiarization act is mostly employed with strangers. This choice is due to the fact that familiarization is "important in multilingual and multiethnic postcolonial communities because of multiple identities people construct around their languages, cultures, religions, and social groups. Through familiarization, interlocutors quickly know the identity to adopt that fits the context of interaction and the status of their addressees" ([32], p. 58). With respect to level of directness, the study has shown that the participants employed direct gratitude expressions as well as indirect gratitude expressions. Far more direct gratitude expressions were registered than indirect gratitude expressions. As far as the realizations of direct thanks are concerned, the results show that the simple form *merci* "thanks" is rather rare in the professor situation. A possible reason for this choice is that this simple pattern is not suitable to reflect the weight/ value of the favor granted and the power asymmetry (student-professor) in this formal situation. When *merci* is employed in the professor situation, it is mostly accompanied and reinforced by nominal address terms. Also interesting is the fact that explicit performative patterns such as je vous remercie are most frequently employed in the professor situation. It could be said that the formality of the situation plays an important role in the choice of types of direct gratitude expressions. With respect to indirect gratitude expressions, the results show that Cameroon French speakers use the "*praising the addressee*" realization pattern much more toward strangers (54 tokens: 63.5%) than with friends (23 tokens: 27%) and professors

#### **Table 8.**

*Distribution of nominal address terms.*

**154**

**Table 8.**

**Table 7.**

**Table 6.**

*Distribution of nominal address terms.*

*Mentioning the object of gratitude across the three situations.*

*Merci/je/te vous remercie franchement/énormément/*

*Merci/je te/vous remercie* + *address term/address* 

*grandement/(très) sincèrement*

*term* + *merci*

**Nominal address terms Friend (n = 20) Stranger (n = 11) Professor (n = 99) Total** Mon ami/pote 7 0 0 7 Gars 6 3 0 9 (Cher) Camarade 1 3 0 4 Mon frère 1 2 0 3 L'ami 1 0 0 1 Cher ami/chère amie 1 1 0 2 (Cher) First name 3 0 0 3 Monsieur 0 0 99 99 Mademoiselle 0 1 0 1 Grand 0 1 0 1 Total 20 11 99 130

*Merci de/pour* + *NP/VP* 10 20 19 49 *Je te/vous remercie de/pour* + *NP/VP* 1 4 37 42 Total 11 24 56 91

*Distribution of lexical intensification devices (adverbs and address terms) across the three situations.*

*Merci/je te/vous remercie beaucoup* 28 45 12 85 *Merci bien* 7 6 1 14 *Merci/je te/vous remercie infiniment* 7 2 8 17 *Grand merci* 3 4 3 10 *Mille fois merci* 2 2 1 5 *Merci encore* 2 0 1 3 *Vraiment merci/je vous remercie vraiment* 2 2 5 9

*Une fois de plus* 0 0 6 6 *Cordialement* 0 0 1 1 *Du fond du cœur* 0 0 1 1

Total 73 73 87 233

**Friend Stranger Professor Total**

**Friend Stranger Professor Total**

4 4 5 13

18 8 43 69

## **4.7 The use of nominal address terms**

The analysis also reveals that a number of nominal address terms were employed in the thanks utterances. The pragmatic functions of such terms are to signal and draw attention to existing as well as intended relationships between the speaker and the hearer and to upgrade the illocutionary value of the thanks utterances. As can be seen in **Table 8**, the participants employed 130 instances of nominal forms of address and the vast majority of these terms appear in the professor situation. The nominal forms of address attested in the friend and the stranger situations consist mainly of kinship and solidarity terms: their pragmatic role is to express closeness and solidarity to the interlocutors (friends and strangers). The terms used in the professor situation express respect and deference. In the three situations, the nominal address terms contribute, as already indicated, in enhancing the relational value of the gratitude expressions in which they occur.
