感激行為的表達在社交互動上有其重要的功能。Eisenstein & Bodman (1993) 提到，適當地表達出感激行為的功能「可以在交談者間產生溫馨及親近的感受 (“can it engender feelings of warmth and solidarity among interlocutors.”)」(p. 167)。然而，相較於其它廣被研究討論的言談行為，例如「道歉」及「請求」，「感激」言談行為的研究相對較少被提及。本研究旨在探討台灣英語學習者在感激行為中介語(interlanguage)的表現，涵蓋「語言感知 (perception)」以及「語言行為表現 (production)」。研究語料來自：60位美國大學生英語基準語料 (English baseline data)、60位台灣大學生中文基準語料 (Chinese baseline data)以及60位台灣大學生英語中介語語料，各組男女受試者各半，其中台灣英語學習者又分為英語主修以及非英語主修兩組。語料收集工具為言談情境填充問卷 (Discourse Completion Test) 以及五點尺度量表 (Five-point Scale Response Questionnaires)，藉以收集受試者情境變數 (contextual factors)：「施惠者社會地位 (social status)」、「與施惠者的社會距離 (social distance)」、「情境困擾程度 (imposition)」以及「施惠者性別 (interlocutor gender)」對「感激程度 (degree of gratefulness)」、「困擾程度 (degree of imposition)」、「施惠者期待感激的可能性 (likelihood of gratitude expectation)」的語言感知以及感激語言行為表現語料。語言感知結果顯示兩組母語受試者均呈現相同的趨勢：越是覺得對施惠者帶來更大的困擾、對施惠者的感激程度越高、施惠者期待其表達感激的可能性更高。美國大學生在「困擾程度」、「施惠者期待感激的可能性」兩項的感知明顯高於台灣大學生。以情境變數而言，「施惠者社會地位」對台灣學生的語言感知有較明顯的影響；「與施惠者的社會距離」則對美國學生有較顯著的影響。言談情境填充問卷的分析結果顯示，兩組母語受試者所使用的主要感激策略大致相同，差異主要在次策略的分布以及其語意特徵。以策略數目而言，兩組人均在困擾程度較高的情境裡使用較多的策略，但整體而
言，美國大學生使用較多感激策略。兩組英語學習者在感激策略的使用上大致與兩組母語人士相同，兩組學習者甚少出現社會語用的負面遷移(negative sociopragmatic transfer)，唯非英語主修組在語言使用的正確程度(linguistic accuracy)、策略使用數目以及說話長度低於英語主修組。由於本研究僅著重在受惠者的單向反應，建議將來進一步分析情境扮演語料、與受試者訪談另收集自然語料等以對感激行為有較全面性的了解。

Expressing gratitude has a significant function in societal interaction. As Eisenstein and Bodman (1993) suggested, only when the function of gratitude is expressed appropriately can it “engender feelings of warmth and solidarity among interlocutors” (p.167). However, compared with other widely discussed speech acts such as apology and request, the speech act of expressions of gratitude seldom drew researchers’ attention. The present study hence focuses on investigating EFL (English as foreign language) learners’ behavior in realizing expressions of gratitude on the basis of cross-cultural comparison of NS-Cs (Native speakers of Chinese) and NS-Es (Native speakers of English) in terms of perception and production performances.
Data used for analysis cover 60 NS-E, 60 NS-C, and 60 EFL speakers’ data elicited from Discourse-Completion-Task (DCT) questionnaire which consisted of 24 scenarios in which four contextual factors, comprising social distance, social status, gender of interlocutor and severity of the situation were embedded. Scale-Response questionnaire (SRQ) was designed to obtain two cultural groups’ perception in terms of degree of imposition, degree of gratefulness, and likelihood of the expectation of benefactors. The EFL group was further categorized into two groups on the basis of proficiency level. Among each group, the number of male and female participants was even. The result of SRQ shows that both cultural groups generated the same tendency, that is, the greater imposition the informant felt s/he caused to the benefactor, the more grateful s/he felt and the more likely s/he thought the benefactor would expect receiving expressions of gratitude. NS-Es’ perceptions on the likelihood of gratitude expectation and degree of imposition were significantly higher than NS-C group’s. In terms of the contextual factors, NS-C participants were found to be more sensitive to relative social status while NS-E participants were more sensitive to relative social distance. The analysis of DCT data shows that NS-Cs and NS-Es generated similar strategies in gratitude-provoking situations and NS-E group generated greater amount of strategy use. Both groups generated more strategies and lengthier utterances in situations bearing greater imposition. EFL groups were found to generate similar strategy uses as the two cultural groups did. Accordingly, the occurrence of negative sociopragmatic transfer was rare while negative pragmalinguistic transfer was more observable. Some linguistic properties of transfer reflected the cultural orientation. Instead of pragmatic performance, proficiency level seemed to be influential in linguistic accuracy, amount of strategy use and length of utterances. The limitation of the study suggests future study conduct on natural utterances, oral DCT, introspective interview with the informants and further discussion on role-play data to get a more comprehensive understanding of the behavior of expressions of gratitude realized by NS-Cs, NS-Es and EFL learners.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
LIST OF TABLES x
LIST OF FIGURES xii
LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS xiv
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background and Motivation 1
1.2 Purpose of the Study 4
1.3 Overview of the Chapters 5
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6
2.1 Speech Act Theory 7
2.2 Politeness Principle 10
2.2.1 The Notion of Face 11
2.3 Collectivism vs. Individualism 12
2.3.1 High-Context Communication vs. Low-Context Communication 14
2.4 Miscommunication 15
2.4.1 Communicative Competence 16
2.5 Pragmatics 17
2.5.1 Interlanguage Pragmatics 18
2.5.2 Pragmatic Failure/Transfer 19
2.6 The Speech Act of Expressions of Gratitude 22
2.6.1 Thanking in Chinese 27
2.6.2 Previous Studies on Gratitude Behavior 28
CHAPTER 3 METHOD 38
3.1 Participants 39
3.2 Instruments 40
3.2.1 Discourse Completion Tasks (DCTs) 40
3.2.2 Scaled-Response Questionnaire (SRQ) 43
3.3 Procedure of Data Collection 47
3.4 Coding System and Data Analysis 47
3.4.1 Coding System of the Present Study 50
3.4.1.1 Stra. A: Explicit Expression of Thanking/Gratitude 50
3.4.1.2 Stra.B: Suggesting Indebtedness 53
3.4.1.3 Stra. C: Showing the Intention to Repay/Reciprocate 55
3.4.1.4 Stra.D: Indicating Caring 59
3.4.1.5 Stra.E: Implying Request 60
3.4.1.6 Star. F: Asking Questions 61
3.4.1.7 Stra.G: Complimenting 63
3.4.1.8 Stra.H: Value Judgment 64
3.4.1.9 Stra.I: Terms of Calling 64
3.4.1.10 Stra.J: Suggesting Affection 66
3.4.1.11 Stra.K: Expressing Relief 68
3.4.1.12 Stra.: L: Further Talk 69
3.4.1.13 Stra. M: Promising 71
3.4.1.14 Stra. N: Pause Filler 71
3.4.1.15 Stra. O: Accepting the Offer 71
3.4.1.16 Stra. P: Nonverbal Communication 72
3.4.1.17 Stra Q: Opt-Out 72
3.4.1.18 Stra.R: refusal 72
3.4.1.19 Stra.S: Avoiding 73
3.4.1.20 Stra. T: Warning/Criticizing 73
CHAPTER 4 RESULTS & DISCUSSION 74
4.1 Result of SRQ 74
4.1.1 Degree of Gratefulness 84
i. Social Distance 84
ii. Status 85
iii. Imposition 86
iv. Interlocutor 87
v. Summary 88
4.1.2 Degree of Imposition 88
i. Social Distance 89
ii. Status 90
iii. Imposition 91
iv. Interlocutor 91
v. Summary 92
4.1.3 Likelihood of Gratitude Expectation 93
i. Distance 93
ii. Status 94
iii. Imposition 95
iv. Interlocutor 95
v. Summary 96
4.2 The Number of Gratitude Strategies & Length of Utterances 97
4.3 The Realization of Gratitude Strategy 103
4.4 EFL Interlanguage Expressions of Gratitude 135
4.4.1 Pragmatic Transfer 136
4.4.1.1 Summary of the realization of EFL Groups’ Expressions of Gratitude: Negative Sociopragmatic Transfer 145
4.4.1.2 Summary of the realization of EFL Groups’ Expressions of Gratitude: Negative Pragmalinguistic Transfer 146
4.4.2 Pragmatic Overgeneralization 147
4.4.3 Teaching-induced Errors 148
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 150
5.1 Summary of the Findings 150
5.2 Pedagogical Implications 153
5.3 Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Further Study 154
REFERENCES 156
APPENDIX 163
APPENDIX A: Questionnaire: Chinese Version for NS-C 163
APPENDIX B: Questionnaire: English Version 174
APPENDIX C: Transcription from Koutlaki (2002) 187

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