Illocutionary Speech Acts of Japanese Gratitude as Depicted in the Black Cinderella Drama and Directed by Kawamura Taisuke

Abstract

Speech acts are related to the intent and meaning of utterances according to the purpose of the speaker. Illocutionary speech act is the ability to convey something by the speaker to the hearer who is expected to perform the action. This is library research with note-taking method; the utterance is taken from a Japanese Black Cinderella drama. The conclusion is that the speech act of gratitude in Japanese appears in several variations, such as, arigatou gozaimasu, arigatou, hontou ni arigatou gozaimashita, kanshashiteru, sankyu, yokatta, go kyouryoku yoroshiku onegaishimasu, otsukaresama deshita, gochisousama deshita and shoujiki arigatai where their functions differ. The higher the social status of the speech partner is, the more polite the language would be. Keywords: Speech acts, Illocutionary acts, Gratitude, Black Cinderella, Kamiya