**2.1 The communicative act of thanking**

Thanking is generally described as an expressive speech act, i.e., its illocutionary force is the expression of a psychological state about the speaker or the world. This speech act is produced in face-to-face situations or in written form when the speaker feels indebted to the addressee for a favor or help done in the past. The communicative act of thanking can also be performed as a reaction to compliments, offers, invitations, greetings, good wishes, etc. Thanks can also function as a closing signal in conversations or transactions in service encounters.

In research on the speech act of thanking in and across languages and cultures, it has been shown that giving thanks may occur in a single speech act (e.g., *thanks, thank you, that* i*s kind of you* in English; *merci, je vous remercie, c'est très gentil*, in French; *danke, vielen Dank, ich danke Ihnen* in German; etc.). Gratitude expressions may also appear in combinations of several acts or speech act sets. In such cases, speakers may combine/repeat two or more expressions of gratitude or combine expressions of gratitude with other speech acts. For instance, in the data used for the present study, the communicative act of thanking is realized in some cases by combining greetings with thanks (*Bonjour monsieur, je vous remercie pour votre aide* "Good morning sir. I thank you for your help") or thanks with familiarization acts (*Oh! Merci beaucoup de ton aide! Moi c'est Sonia et toi?* "Oh, thanks very much for your help. I am Sonia and you?"). Given the complexity of many examples provided by the participants, it would be more appropriate to consider thanking as a speech act set or a communicative act made up of several acts (cf. [7]). It is also interesting to note that the choice of single or complex realization patterns depends on a number of factors, including social distance (degree of familiarity between the interlocutors), power distance (social or institutional status of the interlocutors), the magnitude of the benevolent act carried out, and politeness considerations in the social context where the interaction is taking place. As Siebold ([8], p. 158) put it: "the greater the imposition there is on the giver, the more polite gratitude forms will be used".<sup>2</sup>

### **2.2 Thanking, face, and politeness**

The present study is based on Brown and Levinson's [9] theory of politeness, which uses the central concept of face of Goffman. Within this framework, there are two opposing views on thanks. The first view describes thanks as a face-flattering act, whereby giving thanks is considered as a communicative act that recognizes the effort of the interlocutor and enhances his/her negative face. A gratitude expression is viewed as a means employed to establish and maintain a harmonious social atmosphere between the speaker and the hearer. In other words, the speech

**139**

<sup>3</sup> Also see Gesuato [16].

*Thanking in Cameroon French*

sion can be defined as a

**2.3 Literature review**

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

*protecting his negative face" ([8], p. 157).*

act of thanking has a "convivial function" ([10], p. 83). Overall, a gratitude expres-

*"recognition of something which has already happened in [the speaker's] favor. In this situation, the thanks acts as a kind of reward for the action carried out by the hearer […]. The speaker doing the thanking appreciates the efforts of the hearer, who has previously to some extent forfeited his own freedom of action through this act. In this way, the expression of thanks serves to recognize the personal restriction experienced by the hearer for the benefit of the speaker, thus safeguarding and* 

On the other hand, giving thanks is viewed as a face-threatening act. Brown and Levinson [9], for instance, describe thanks as a threat to the speaker's negative face, as the latter "accepts a debt [and] humbles his own face." The self-humiliation is due to the fact that s/he who expresses his or her gratitude is "to some degree subordinated to the hearer as a result of accepting the benevolent act in [his/her] favor and is at times in conflict with [his/her] positive face." Eisenstein and Bodman [11] also classify thanking as a face-threatening act: they are of the opinion that the speaker threatens his/her own negative face by acknowledging a debt to the hearer (p. 65). Overall, it is safe to view thanks as a multidirectional communicative activity, with respect to face concerns. Thanks can flatter the positive image of the hearer, since the gratitude expression presents the hearer (the thankee) as someone who has done something beneficial to the speaker (the thanker). In this case, the thanks is an attempt to satisfy the hearer's need to be approved of. Thanks can also be considered as an enhancing strategy directed toward the negative face of the hearer as it is employed to recognize the efforts of the hearer [8]. Thanks can also enhance the positive face of the speaker by presenting him/her as someone who recognizes the efforts of others and acknowledges benevolent actions. By expressing his/her gratitude, the speaker emerges as someone who knows how to satisfy the desire of the hearer. At the same time, thanks can threaten the positive face of the speaker because s/he subordinates himself/herself to the hearer. Finally, thanks can threaten the negative face of the speaker, since s/he admits having an obligation to the hearer.

The speech act of thanking has been extensively examined in many languages and from many different perspectives. Many studies have dealt with gratitude expressions and responses to thanks in languages such as Akan [12], German

cultural or contrastive pragmatics perspective compare French and Italian [17], German and Spanish [18], German and Iraqi Arabic [19], French and Romanian [20], etc., gratitude expressions with Jordan and England [21]. Comparative studies focusing on regional varieties of English include Jautz's [22] analysis of gratitude expressions in British and New Zealand English radio programs and Elwood's [23] examination of gratitude expressions in Irish English and New Zealand English. As far as French is concerned, the studies currently available mostly analyze the speech act of thanking alongside other speech acts. For instance, Kerbrat-Orecchioni [24] examines apologies, thanks, and responses to both acts in the same chapter of her book on speech acts in discourse. She classifies thanks expressions in many subcategories. She distinguishes between direct thanks, i.e., those using either the performative utterance "je te/vous remercie" or the elliptical "merci"

Studies from a cross-

[13], English [11, 14], and Cameroon English ([15], p. 548).3

<sup>1</sup> See Section 4.1. for more explanation regarding the benefits of using this data collection instrument.

<sup>2</sup> The understanding here is that polite forms will consist of combinations of many different strategies, thus rendering the thanks more complex.

groups of university students1

**2. Theoretical framework**

evokes some avenues for future research.

**2.1 The communicative act of thanking**

signal in conversations or transactions in service encounters.

. This paper is structured as follows. After this intro-

duction, the next section presents the theoretical framework of the study. Section 3 reports on the methodology employed. The findings of the study are presented and discussed in Section 4. Section 5 summarizes the main outcomes of the study and

Thanking is generally described as an expressive speech act, i.e., its illocutionary force is the expression of a psychological state about the speaker or the world. This speech act is produced in face-to-face situations or in written form when the speaker feels indebted to the addressee for a favor or help done in the past. The communicative act of thanking can also be performed as a reaction to compliments, offers, invitations, greetings, good wishes, etc. Thanks can also function as a closing

In research on the speech act of thanking in and across languages and cultures, it has been shown that giving thanks may occur in a single speech act (e.g., *thanks, thank you, that* i*s kind of you* in English; *merci, je vous remercie, c'est très gentil*, in French; *danke, vielen Dank, ich danke Ihnen* in German; etc.). Gratitude expressions may also appear in combinations of several acts or speech act sets. In such cases, speakers may combine/repeat two or more expressions of gratitude or combine expressions of gratitude with other speech acts. For instance, in the data used for the present study, the communicative act of thanking is realized in some cases by combining greetings with thanks (*Bonjour monsieur, je vous remercie pour votre aide* "Good morning sir. I thank you for your help") or thanks with familiarization acts (*Oh! Merci beaucoup de ton aide! Moi c'est Sonia et toi?* "Oh, thanks very much for your help. I am Sonia and you?"). Given the complexity of many examples provided by the participants, it would be more appropriate to consider thanking as a speech act set or a communicative act made up of several acts (cf. [7]). It is also interesting to note that the choice of single or complex realization patterns depends on a number of factors, including social distance (degree of familiarity between the interlocutors), power distance (social or institutional status of the interlocutors), the magnitude of the benevolent act carried out, and politeness considerations in the social context where the interaction is taking place. As Siebold ([8], p. 158) put it: "the greater the imposition there is on the giver, the more polite gratitude forms

The present study is based on Brown and Levinson's [9] theory of politeness, which uses the central concept of face of Goffman. Within this framework, there are two opposing views on thanks. The first view describes thanks as a face-flattering act, whereby giving thanks is considered as a communicative act that recognizes the effort of the interlocutor and enhances his/her negative face. A gratitude expression is viewed as a means employed to establish and maintain a harmonious social atmosphere between the speaker and the hearer. In other words, the speech

<sup>1</sup> See Section 4.1. for more explanation regarding the benefits of using this data collection instrument. <sup>2</sup> The understanding here is that polite forms will consist of combinations of many different strategies,

**138**

will be used".<sup>2</sup>

**2.2 Thanking, face, and politeness**

thus rendering the thanks more complex.

act of thanking has a "convivial function" ([10], p. 83). Overall, a gratitude expression can be defined as a

*"recognition of something which has already happened in [the speaker's] favor. In this situation, the thanks acts as a kind of reward for the action carried out by the hearer […]. The speaker doing the thanking appreciates the efforts of the hearer, who has previously to some extent forfeited his own freedom of action through this act. In this way, the expression of thanks serves to recognize the personal restriction experienced by the hearer for the benefit of the speaker, thus safeguarding and protecting his negative face" ([8], p. 157).*

On the other hand, giving thanks is viewed as a face-threatening act. Brown and Levinson [9], for instance, describe thanks as a threat to the speaker's negative face, as the latter "accepts a debt [and] humbles his own face." The self-humiliation is due to the fact that s/he who expresses his or her gratitude is "to some degree subordinated to the hearer as a result of accepting the benevolent act in [his/her] favor and is at times in conflict with [his/her] positive face." Eisenstein and Bodman [11] also classify thanking as a face-threatening act: they are of the opinion that the speaker threatens his/her own negative face by acknowledging a debt to the hearer (p. 65).

Overall, it is safe to view thanks as a multidirectional communicative activity, with respect to face concerns. Thanks can flatter the positive image of the hearer, since the gratitude expression presents the hearer (the thankee) as someone who has done something beneficial to the speaker (the thanker). In this case, the thanks is an attempt to satisfy the hearer's need to be approved of. Thanks can also be considered as an enhancing strategy directed toward the negative face of the hearer as it is employed to recognize the efforts of the hearer [8]. Thanks can also enhance the positive face of the speaker by presenting him/her as someone who recognizes the efforts of others and acknowledges benevolent actions. By expressing his/her gratitude, the speaker emerges as someone who knows how to satisfy the desire of the hearer. At the same time, thanks can threaten the positive face of the speaker because s/he subordinates himself/herself to the hearer. Finally, thanks can threaten the negative face of the speaker, since s/he admits having an obligation to the hearer.

### **2.3 Literature review**

The speech act of thanking has been extensively examined in many languages and from many different perspectives. Many studies have dealt with gratitude expressions and responses to thanks in languages such as Akan [12], German [13], English [11, 14], and Cameroon English ([15], p. 548).3 Studies from a crosscultural or contrastive pragmatics perspective compare French and Italian [17], German and Spanish [18], German and Iraqi Arabic [19], French and Romanian [20], etc., gratitude expressions with Jordan and England [21]. Comparative studies focusing on regional varieties of English include Jautz's [22] analysis of gratitude expressions in British and New Zealand English radio programs and Elwood's [23] examination of gratitude expressions in Irish English and New Zealand English.

As far as French is concerned, the studies currently available mostly analyze the speech act of thanking alongside other speech acts. For instance, Kerbrat-Orecchioni [24] examines apologies, thanks, and responses to both acts in the same chapter of her book on speech acts in discourse. She classifies thanks expressions in many subcategories. She distinguishes between direct thanks, i.e., those using either the performative utterance "je te/vous remercie" or the elliptical "merci"

<sup>3</sup> Also see Gesuato [16].

([25], p. 129) and indirect thanks, i.e., those occurring in the form of different speech acts. She identifies the following types of indirect thanks:


A number of studies have been carried out in the past on gratitude expressions and responses to thanks in Cameroonian contexts. Investigations on the speech act of thanking include Dnzoutchep Nguewo's [25] comparative study of gratitude expressions in German and some languages spoken in the western region of Cameroon. The author illustrates the complex structure of the speech act of thanking, which he describes as a communicative act made up of several other speech acts, and supported by compliments, good wishes, address terms, etc. The complexity of gratitude expressions in the Cameroonian languages examined is viewed by the author as a reflection of sociocultural norms of many ethnic groups in the western region of Cameroon. Another investigation of the author yielded similar results (cf. [26]). Another analysis of thanking in Cameroonian context is Anchimbe's [27] study of thanking in written political discourse called "motions of support." These are letters read on the radio or TV or published in newspapers, addressed to the president thanking him for a political favor or action deemed beneficial to the group writing the motion. The study shows that thanking in "motions of support" appears as a communicative act made up of several other speech acts (cf. [27], p. 240). Also interesting is the conclusion that "the sociocultural interactional norms of indigenous Cameroonian cultures could be said to have influenced the structure and content of [Motions of Support] through their decorum and the extensive use of linguistic oratory in traditional hereditary systems" ([27], p. 240–241).

The goal of the present study is to contribute to a better understanding of Cameroon French speakers' patterns in giving thanks. The approach used here operates on the premises of postcolonial pragmatics (cf. [27]), which takes into account the complex, multilingual, multiethnic, and multicultural postcolonial nature of the Cameroonian society, and thus considers giving thanks in Cameroon French (an ex-colonial language in a postcolonial space) as a postcolonial pragmatic behavior. Using this framework, the analysis reveals traces of indigenous cultural and communication patterns in the communicative act of giving thanks in Cameroon French. This impact could be noted in the use of nominal address terms by Cameroon French speakers as markers of group culture and in-group identity, on the one hand, and as expressions of deference and respect in formal situations, on the other hand. Also interesting here is the complexity of thanks utterances, which seems to be a reflection of indigenous sociocultural norms (see Section 5).

**141**

*Thanking in Cameroon French*

**3.1 Procedure and informants**

**3. Method**

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

The data for the study were collected in Yaoundé and Douala, Cameroon, by means of a discourse completion task questionnaire (see [28]) consisting of several situations in which the participants had to realize a number of different speech acts in short dialogs. Each scenario comprised a brief description of the setting, i.e., "the general circumstances […] and the relevant situational parameters concerning

Recordings of spontaneous or naturally occurring conversations could have been

social dominance, social distance, and degree of imposition" ([22], p. 43).

the focus of the present study, were described as follows:

say to him/her?"

the ideal data for a study like this. Getting such data is, however, difficult: apart from the time-consuming nature of such recordings, a large quantity of the data obtained may contain a very small number of gratitude expressions. It may also be difficult to examine the impact of factors such as social status, social distance, types of gratitude expressions, etc., because these variables are difficult and even impossible to control in spontaneous conversations (cf. [29, 30], p. 35–37). The discourse completion task (DCT) questionnaire is one of the most widely used data collection instruments in pragmatic research. Established in the CCSARP [28], this instrument has the greatest advantage of producing a large number of data in a short time and it helps to account for variation in speech act realization influenced by social and contextual variables. While such data may not always be natural, they at least help to "inform about speakers' pragmalinguistic knowledge of the strategies and linguistic forms by which communicative acts can be implemented and about their sociopragmatic knowledge of the context factors under which strategic and linguistic choices are appropriate" ([31], p. 329). The three scenarios used to elicit thanks,

1.Situation 1 (friend): *Vous déjeunez avec votre ami(e) dans un restaurant du coin. Au moment de payer l'addition, vous constatez que vous n'avez pas votre porte-monnaie sur vous. Vous l'avez certainement oublié à la maison. Votre ami(e) paie pour vous. Qu'est-ce que vous lui dites?* "You are having lunch with a friend in a restaurant. When you are about to settle the bill you realize that you left your wallet at home. Your friend pays for your lunch. What do you

2.Situation 2 (stranger): *En allant en classe, vous laissez tomber accidentellement vos documents et notes de cours, lesquels s'éparpillent dans le couloir encombré. Un(e) étudiant(e) inconnu(e) vous aide à ramasser vos documents. Qu'est-ce que vous lui dites?* "On your way to class, you accidentally drop your notes and a student you do not know helps you pick them. What do you say to him/her?"

3.Situation 3 (professor): *Votre professeur(e) vous accorde quelques jours supplémentaires pour la remise de votre travail de recherche. Lorsque vous lui remettez le travail en question que lui dites-vous?* "Your professor grants you an extension to submit a term paper. When you turn in the paper, what do you say to him/her?"

In situation 1 (friend), the speaker, i.e., the person thanking for the favor (the thanker), and the addressee, the person being thanked for the favor (the thankee), are close friends and equal in social status. In situation 2 (stranger), the speaker and the addressee do not know each other. The relationship here is one of total social distance. Situation 3 (professor) illustrates an asymmetrical interaction: the
