A PRAGMATIC STUDY OF INDIRECT GRATITUDE IN DENZEL WASHINGTON'S MOVIE "THE FENCES"

Abstract

This study looks at how Denzel Washington's 2016 film" Fences" explores the expression of gratitude through social bonding, appreciation, and lowering imposition. This study accomplishes several aims: Identifying the forms of gratitude (direct or indirect). Identifying the most dominant politeness Strategies employed in the movie.(3)Highlighting which strategy used frequently according to cheng 2005 classification of gratitude . Showing the most dominant Maxim in the Film and Identifying the most dominant speech act in "The Fences". Several hypothesis developed to match the aims: The study assumes that most expressions of gratitude in Fences are indirect. Positive politeness is expected to be the most used strategy.The most common strategy of gratitude is thankindg . The Relevance Maxim is used mostly in"Fences". The study assumes that gratitude is realized as an expressive speech act.In order to investigate the studies objectives and its hypothesis the following procedures are modified: reviewing the literature review on gratitude and the pragmatic theories that study it . The data is analyzed based on eclectic model consists of searle categories of speech acts , conversational maximum (1975 )and the Brown and Levinson Politeness (1987).Primary findings of the research are: most gratitude expressions of "Fences" are indirect . Positive politeness is used the most among other strategies . The most common strategy of gratitude is positive feeling. Grice maxims are largely observed especially Relevance Maxim. It has been shown that expressive speech act is used more than other types of speech Acts.