Dynamics of English gratitude expression: a corpus-assisted analysis of UK government COVID-19 briefings
With a focus on politicians’ and medical experts’ gratitude expressions in UK government COVID-19 briefings, this research describes how perspective and intensity were modulated in expressing gratitude to realise different pragmatic intentions. This corpus-assisted analysis finds that retrospective...
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Cambridge University Press
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Language and Cognition |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1866980824000255/type/journal_article |
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| author | Jilan Wei M. Lynne Murphy |
| author_facet | Jilan Wei M. Lynne Murphy |
| author_sort | Jilan Wei |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | With a focus on politicians’ and medical experts’ gratitude expressions in UK government COVID-19 briefings, this research describes how perspective and intensity were modulated in expressing gratitude to realise different pragmatic intentions. This corpus-assisted analysis finds that retrospective or prospective gratitude expression was adopted by the two British elite groups to build solidarity (encouraging) and/or make requests (directing) for protecting public health. Gratitude of varying intensities was expressed (e.g. by highlighting metaphorical dimensions such as WIDTH and DEPTH) to correspond to the importance of a benefit (judged by how much the given benefit matches the receiver’s needs and preferences) and/or to implicitly display the evaluation of the benefactor’s responsibility and efforts. We tentatively formulate a dynamic model of gratitude expression in public discourse and shed light on the metaphorical conceptualisation of English gratitude expression and the power of gratitude expression in boosting social cohesion and directing social actions in a discourse of crisis. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4985197bf37046eab072271727e40e2d |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1866-9808 1866-9859 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Language and Cognition |
| spelling | doaj-art-4985197bf37046eab072271727e40e2d2025-08-20T02:19:37ZengCambridge University PressLanguage and Cognition1866-98081866-98592024-12-01161756177510.1017/langcog.2024.25Dynamics of English gratitude expression: a corpus-assisted analysis of UK government COVID-19 briefingsJilan Wei0M. Lynne Murphy1School of Foreign Languages, Changzhou Institute of Technology, Changzhou, P.R. China School of Media, Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex, Brighton, UKSchool of Media, Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex, Brighton, UKWith a focus on politicians’ and medical experts’ gratitude expressions in UK government COVID-19 briefings, this research describes how perspective and intensity were modulated in expressing gratitude to realise different pragmatic intentions. This corpus-assisted analysis finds that retrospective or prospective gratitude expression was adopted by the two British elite groups to build solidarity (encouraging) and/or make requests (directing) for protecting public health. Gratitude of varying intensities was expressed (e.g. by highlighting metaphorical dimensions such as WIDTH and DEPTH) to correspond to the importance of a benefit (judged by how much the given benefit matches the receiver’s needs and preferences) and/or to implicitly display the evaluation of the benefactor’s responsibility and efforts. We tentatively formulate a dynamic model of gratitude expression in public discourse and shed light on the metaphorical conceptualisation of English gratitude expression and the power of gratitude expression in boosting social cohesion and directing social actions in a discourse of crisis.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1866980824000255/type/journal_articleEnglish gratitude expressionintensityperspectiverequestsolidarity |
| spellingShingle | Jilan Wei M. Lynne Murphy Dynamics of English gratitude expression: a corpus-assisted analysis of UK government COVID-19 briefings Language and Cognition English gratitude expression intensity perspective request solidarity |
| title | Dynamics of English gratitude expression: a corpus-assisted analysis of UK government COVID-19 briefings |
| title_full | Dynamics of English gratitude expression: a corpus-assisted analysis of UK government COVID-19 briefings |
| title_fullStr | Dynamics of English gratitude expression: a corpus-assisted analysis of UK government COVID-19 briefings |
| title_full_unstemmed | Dynamics of English gratitude expression: a corpus-assisted analysis of UK government COVID-19 briefings |
| title_short | Dynamics of English gratitude expression: a corpus-assisted analysis of UK government COVID-19 briefings |
| title_sort | dynamics of english gratitude expression a corpus assisted analysis of uk government covid 19 briefings |
| topic | English gratitude expression intensity perspective request solidarity |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1866980824000255/type/journal_article |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jilanwei dynamicsofenglishgratitudeexpressionacorpusassistedanalysisofukgovernmentcovid19briefings AT mlynnemurphy dynamicsofenglishgratitudeexpressionacorpusassistedanalysisofukgovernmentcovid19briefings |