“Don’t Mention It!”: A Pragmatic Perspective of Thanking Responses by Native Speakers of Jordanian Arabic

Abstract

It is widely common to express thanking responses to thanks you receive for doing someone a favor. This study aims at studying thanking responses used by native speakers of Jordanian Arabic from a pragmatic perspective. The data of this study was collected through natural observation of the participants in real-life situations by the researcher and two other volunteers. A total number of 436 expressions were identified as thanking responses in the data, which were classified based on Chung's classification of thanking responses. The study reveals that acceptance is the most frequent type of thanking responses, followed by denial. On the other hand, non-verbal gestures and no response were the least common types among the participants. Reciprocity was the fourth most frequent type preceded by comments, which occupied the third place. As far as the length of the thanking response is concerned, the study shows that the participants used simple and combined types of responses. The study provides some recommendations for future research.

Responding Strategies in Jordanian Arabic: A Socio-pragmatic Study

“…Children between 10-12 years old did not encounter any problem in responding to literal and ironic compliments. Responses to thanking is investigated by Al Rusan [23]. The study explores the strategies employed by native speakers of Jordanian Arabic when performing thanking responses through natural observation of the participants in real-life situations.…”