LINGUISTIC STATUS AND FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICITY OF THE UTTERANCES OF GRATITUDE IN ENGLISH DIALOGICAL SPEECH

Abstract

This article provides the analysis of characteristics and functional specificity of the utterances of gratitude in the English dialogical speech. It outlines interdisciplinary approaches to the interpretation of the phenomenon of gratitude, in particular, it analyses the definitions of gratitude as a positive emotion, virtue, moral duty, speech act with a definite emotional and pragmatic potential. It has been established that utterances of gratitude are widely recognized as the easiest and most common way of expressing gratitude, which emerges as an emotional response triggered by external stimuli, whether verbal or non-verbal. Based on the results of the specificity of utterances of gratitude actualisation in the process of communication, the article summarises their functional role, revealing not only the speaker’s attitude to the interlocutor, but also the pragmatic aim of the communicative act, namely: the phatic or ceremonial function focused on regulating and adhering to the socially accepted norms, requirements, and customs of politeness; the emotional-and-expressive function, which presupposes a sincere positive assessment of the interlocutor’s action or words in the form of sincere gratitude, as well as the evaluative-and-critical function aimed at expressing an ironic and sarcastic assessment of the interlocutor’s unhelpful action or words in the form of insincere gratitude. This article also provides a systematisation of linguistic features of the utterances of gratitude actualisation, the most common among which are as follows: the extensive use of cliché phrases of politeness; emotionally coloured evaluative lexical units; appeals, causatives of gratitude, the means nominating the person to whom the utterance is addressed, etc., being accompanied by a wide variety of non-verbal means of communication (gestural, facial, proxemic, tactile-kinesthetic, etc.). The proposed systematisation of the functional role of utterances of gratitude can serve as a methodological tool during planning and developing methodology for conducting an experimental phonetic study of prosodic organisation of the utterances of gratitude actualised in English dialogic speech with various degrees of emotional and pragmatic potentials.