A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF THE SPEECH ACT OF CONGRATULATION IN BRITISH ENGLISH AND TURKISH USING A CORPUS APPROACH A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY HÜMEYRA CAN IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AUGUST 2011 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. Prof. Dr. Wolf König Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çiler Hatipoğlu Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Nalan Büyükkantarcıoğlu (H.U, EL) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çiler Hatipoğlu (METU, FLE) Assist. Prof. Dr. Çiğdem Sağın Şimşek (METU, FLE) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name: Hümeyra Can Signature : iii ABSTRACT A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF THE SPEECH ACT OF CONGRATULATION IN BRITISH ENGLISH AND TURKISH USING A CORPUS APPROACH Can, Hümeyra M.A., Program in English Language Teaching Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çiler Hatipoğlu August 2011, 209 pages This study aims to find out the culturally different conceptualizations of congratulation in British culture and tebrik and kutlama in Turkish culture using a corpus approach and to formulate cultural scripts for these three performative verbs using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage Approach. More specifically, the study aims to reveal the contexts where the target speech act is used and to uncover the kinds of strategies/components employed in these situations. To be able to collect the targeted data, the study begins with the monolingual and bilingual dictionary definitions of the performative verbs (i.e., congratulate, tebrik etmek and kutlamak) and then follows a corpus approach whereby the performative verbs and their various lexical forms are searched for in various corpora (i.e., BYU-BNC, MTC, Google). In total, 47 dictionaries are looked up and 442 contexts of congratulation, 339 contexts of tebrik and 348 contexts of kutlama are collected from the newspaper and blog genres in the three corpora. The analyses of the data aim to uncover the qualitative and quantitative features of congratulation, tebrik and kutlama in British and Turkish cultures. The results of the study show that there are some cultural differences as well as similarities in the conceptualization of the speech act of congratulation in terms of its contexts of use and strategies. The findings also demonstrate the usefulness of the corpus approach in studying speech acts and their conceptualisation. The thesis aims to contribute to the areas of foreign language education, intercultural/cross-cultural communication and pragmatics. Keywords: The Speech Act of Congratulation, Corpus Approach, Cultural script, Natural Semantic Metalanguage Approach, British English and Turkish Cultures iv ÖZ DERLEM YAKLAŞIMI İLE TEBRİK SÖZEYLEMİNİN İNGİLİZ VE TÜRK KÜLTÜRLERİNDE KULLANIMININ KARŞILAŞTIRMALI İNCELENMESİ Can, Hümeyra Yüksek Lisans, İngiliz Dili Eğitimi Tez Yöneticisi: Doç. Dr. Çiler Hatipoğlu Ağustos 2011, 209 sayfa Bu çalışmanın amacı İngiliz kültüründe congratulation, Türk kültüründe ise tebrik ve kutlama sözeylemlerinin derlem yaklaşımı ile nasıl kavramsallaştırıldığını bulup Doğal Anlamsal Üstdil Yaklaşımı yoluyla bu üç sözeylem fiili için kültürel skript oluşturmaktır. Diğer bir değişle, bu çalışma söz konusu sözeylemin kullanıldığı bağlamları/durumları ve bu durumlarda kullanılan stratejileri ortaya çıkarmayı amaçlamaktadır. Hedeflenen veriye ulaşabilmek için, ilk olarak sözeylem fiillerinin (congratulate, tebrik etmek ve kutlamak) tek dilli ve iki dilli sözlük tanımlarına bakılmıştır. Daha sonra, derlem yaklaşımı kullanılarak söz konusu sözeylem fiilleri ve bunların çeşitli yapıları çeşitli derlem kaynaklarında (BYU-BNC, MTC, Google) araştırılmıştır. Toplamda, 47 sözlüğe bakılmıştır ve söz konusu üç derlem kaynağında gazete ve ağ günlüğü (İng. blog) türlerinden congratulation için 442 bağlam, tebrik için 339 bağlam ve kutlama için 348 bağlam toplanmıştır. Yapılan analizler İngiliz ve Türk kültürlerinde congratulate, tebrik ve kutlama eylemlerinin nitel ve nicel özelliklerini ortaya çıkarmayı amaçlamıştır. Bu çalışmanın sonuçları, incelenen kültürlerde tebrik sözeyleminin durum ve strateji açısından kültürel farklılıklar ve benzerlikler olduğunu ve bunun da söz konusu sözeylemin kavramsallaştırılmasına yansıdığını göstermektedir. Sonuçlar derlem yaklaşımının sözeylem çalışmalarında faydalı olabileceğini ortaya koymaktadır. Bu tez, yabancı dil eğitimi, kültürlerarası iletişim ve edimbilim alanlarına katkı sağlamayı hedeflemektedir. Anahtar kelimeler: Tebrik Sözeylemi, Derlem Yaklaşımı, Kültürel Skript, Doğal Anlamsal Üstdil Yaklaşımı, İngiliz ve Türk Kültürleri v Yaşam sevincim canım anne ve babam Emine ve Yunus Can‘a değer biçilmez sevgi ve destekleri için… [To my beloved parents Emine and Yunus Can, who are the joy of my life, for their priceless love and support…] vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The process of writing up this thesis required a number of challenging steps which would not have been successfully taken forward without the heart-warming company of those who have stood by me at every stage of my thesis and I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to them for having made this thesis possible. First of all, I would like to send my heartfelt and warmest thanks to my thesis supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çiler Hatipoğlu for her invaluable guidance, intellectual and moral support and for being a great source of motivation and inspiration throughout the process of writing up this thesis. I have always appreciated her deep knowledge and expertise in the field as well as her sense of communication with her students, which have made her the role model of my life. It was her encouragement and belief in me that eased the challenging process of completing this thesis work. I have always enjoyed brainstorming and exchanging ideas with her as she helped me broaden my horizon and gain further insight in the field with her worthwhile feedback, suggestions and observations. Thank you Çiler Hocam for everything you have done for me. I would also like to extend my gratitude to my jury members and professors Prof. Dr. Nalan Büyükkantarcıoğlu, Prof. Dr. Şükriye Ruhi and Assist. Prof. Dr. Çiğdem Sağın Şimşek for their constructive feedback and significant guidance in shaping the scope of this thesis. Their extensive knowledge, helpful suggestions and contributions enabled me to follow safe and sound steps as the thesis was being completed. Many thanks and appreciations go to my friends and colleagues Sevgi Şahin, Özlem Karakaş, Mustafa Öztürk, Şenay Saraç, Lütfiye Ekiz, Ayşegül Leblebicioğlu and Aylin Kılıç for always being by my side and for their continual moral support. They have shown great understanding of what I had been going through and have always expressed their belief in me giving me all their best. I am really grateful to them for showing their interest and for their sincere friendship and company. vii My wholehearted and deepest thanks, gratitude, congratulations and a token of my love and appreciation go to my dear parents Emine and Yunus Can, to whom this thesis is dedicated, for making me who I am today and to my sisters Gülistan Arslan, V. Betül Can and my brother M. Fatih Can who have filled me with joy. Their great sacrifices, never-ending moral support, patience, love and affection, well-wishes and prayers have all given me strength during the ups and downs of this journey. They have turned this experience into something more meaningful. I would like to specifically express my indebtedness to my father for his intellectual as well as emotional support and contribution to the thesis with his invaluable comments and for sparing his precious time listening to me, giving me inspiration and bringing an outsider perspective. I am deeply indebted to my twin sister Nilüfer Can for her great patience with me, continual support and encouragement. She was always there ready to lend a helping hand at every stage of the thesis. Without her approval of what I had done, I would not have been able to proceed. Having someone by my side who showed an absolute understanding of what I had been doing and who knew exactly what I was feeling and thinking was the greatest privilege I have ever felt. She has always been ready to listen to me and share her ideas. She constantly kept an eye on how things were going with my thesis and made sure I was on the right track and was making a progress. She was not only my sister but also my friend, colleague, partner, advisor and councillor. Without her, this journey would not have been as meaningful and enjoyable. Last but not least, I would like to send my love to my nephews for being there whenever I needed somebody to have fun with and they have turned this experience into a colourful one with their naive approach to what I was doing and attempts to make sense of this process. I would also like to take this opportunity to extend my gratitude to my grandparents Osman-Vasfiye for their continual well-