Download PDF
DOI: 10.18503/2658-3186-2023-7-3-45-49
Abstract. Departing from traditional linguistic approaches in politeness, which mainly relied on politeness maxims and strategies, contemporary scholars have adopted a more nuanced perspective, emphasizing the significance of politeness markers. While important, these markers have not yet been identified in many languages, including Croatian. This article delves into the realm of verbal politeness markers in the Croatian language, shedding light on the cultural equivalents of the terms thank you and thanks. The study employs a qualitative analysis, specifically focusing on the meaning and usage of Croatian counterparts to these commonly used English politeness markers – hvala (ti/Vam), zahvljujem and tenks. Their usage was displayed using examples from the Croatian national corpus and a questionnaire conducted among Croatian university students, participating in a requesting speech act, meaning a special emphasis in the article is put on the usage of politeness markers in such acts between people of different power and social status. The analysis reveals that zahvaljujem, hvala (ti/Vam) and tenks are all used to express gratitude, but differ with regards to the level of formality and emphasis they convey. Moreover, the study highlights that longer expressions convey more formality than shorter expressions, and that Croatianised versions of English politeness markers carry exclusively informal and friendly connotations, which the participants in the questionnaire seem to have understood and upheld with their marker usage. This research offers valuable insights into politeness markers in Croatian, emphasizing the importance of context, formality, and linguistic nuances and the article encourages further exploration of this underresearched topic.
Keywords: politeness, politeness markers, Croatian, verbal markers, linguistics.
Author
Klara Kolar, Master of English and Russian Language and Literature with a specialization in translation, third year PhD student of Linguistics, with a specialization in Theory of Language and Discourse Analysis, at the Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Philology, People’s Friendship University of Russia (PFUR/RUDN), Moscow, Russia; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
References
1. Alemi M., Maleknia Z., Politeness markers in emails of non-native English speaking university students // Russian Journal of Linguistics, 2023, vol. 27. no. 1. pp. 67–87. doi: 10.22363/2687-0088-33334 (accessed on: 8/21/2023).
2. Baker Paul. American and British English: Divided by a common language? London, Cambridge University Press, 2017, 276 p.
3. Brown, P., Levinson S., Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, 345 p.
4. Grice H.P. Logic and Conversation. In: Syntax and Semantics, New York, Academic Press, 1975, vol 3, pp. 41–58.
5. Islentyeva A., Pesendorfer L., Tolochin I., ’Can I have a cup of tea please?’ Politeness markers in the Spoken BNC2014, Journal of Politeness Research, 2023, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 297–322. https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2022-0010 (accessed on: 8/23/2023).
6. Kolar K., Politeness Strategies in Croatian University Student-Teacher Email Communication, Word, Utterance, Text: Cognitive, Pragmatic and Cultural Aspects – 11th international conference, 2022, vol. 2, pp. 72–76. doi: 10.47475/9785727118054_76 (accessed on: 4/5/2022).
7. Leech G., Principles of Pragmatics, London and New York, Longman, 1983, 264 p.
For citation
Kolar K., Hvala (Ti/Vam), Zahvaljujem, Tenks: Identifying Croatian Verbal Politeness Markers, Gumanitarno-pedagogicheskie issledovaniya [Humanitarian and pedagogical Research], 2023, vol. 7, no 3, pp. 45-49.