IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cxi/ijah00/v3y2025i2id547.html

Speech Acts and Direct Gratitude in Denzel Washington's "Fences": A Pragmatic Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Hadeel Mezher Kadhim

    (M.A. Student at Babylon University, Iraq)

  • Hussain Hameed Mayuuf

    (University of Babylon, Iraq)

Abstract

This study examines the use of direct gratitude as a speech act in Fences, directed by Denzel Washington, through the lens of pragmatic theory. Speech acts and expressions of gratitude play a vital role in revealing how characters construct and negotiate social and emotional meanings within interpersonal interactions. Drawing on Speech Acts Theory, this research seeks to identify the types of speech acts employed to express direct gratitude and to analyze their communicative functions in the film’s social and familial contexts. The study addresses two key questions: (1) Which types of speech acts are present in the expressions of direct gratitude in Fences? and (2) Which type occurs most frequently? It is hypothesized that expressive, assertive, and commissive speech acts appear in instances of direct gratitude, with expressive acts being the most dominant. The findings contribute to understanding how gratitude functions pragmatically as a means of reinforcing relationships and emotional coherence in cinematic discourse.

Suggested Citation

  • Hadeel Mezher Kadhim & Hussain Hameed Mayuuf, 2025. "Speech Acts and Direct Gratitude in Denzel Washington's "Fences": A Pragmatic Analysis," International Journal of Arts and Humanities, Bluemark Publishers, vol. 3(2), pages 60-65, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:cxi:ijah00:v:3:y:2025:i:2:id:547
    DOI: 10.61424/ijah.v3i2.547
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://bluemarkpublishers.com/index.php/IJAH/article/view/547
    File Function: Abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://bluemarkpublishers.com/index.php/IJAH/article/download/547/434
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.61424/ijah.v3i2.547?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cxi:ijah00:v:3:y:2025:i:2:id:547. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://bluemarkpublishers.com/index.php/IJAH .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.