VERBALISATION OF POLITENESS “THANK” IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE (CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS)

Abstract

Understanding cultural aspects of a language assists us to have better communication with the representative of this language, while lack of cultural knowledge about the language leads to misunderstanding and intercultural barriers. As politeness is a cultural aspect it cannot be left out from our attention. “Thank” and its collocations are the most common means of verbalizing politeness in English. The article provides a detailed corpus-based analysis of usage of “thank” in different situations and registers in daily life as well as studies their pragmatic uses in various communicative contexts. The collected data allows to draw a conclusion that there are six primary pragmatic functions of "thank" and "thanks". The research found widespread usage patterns for the words "thank" and "thanks." Additionally, a few idioms were found, such as "thank God/goodness/heavens" and "thanks a bunch/a lot/a million.