Expressing thanks in Chinese: the influence of age and personality on speech act behavior

Gratitude speech acts play a vital role in communication, as they help maintain social harmony and reflect cultural values. The study of gratitude speech acts is crucial in pragmatics because it reveals how individuals navigate social relationships and express politeness. Understanding how gratitude is expressed in different contexts highlights the underlying social norms and personal traits that influence language use, making it a significant area of research in cross-cultural and interpersonal communication. Despite the importance of gratitude, there is limited research on how individual traits, such as age and personality, affect the choice of gratitude strategies. This gap leaves room for a deeper exploration of inter-personal variability in the expression of thanks in the same cultural context. This study aims to examine the similarities and differences in gratitude expressions among Chinese adults of varying age groups (young vs. mature) and personality traits (introverted vs. extroverted), focusing on whether these personal traits affect the use of politeness strategies and adherence to cultural norms. To achieve this end, 80 Chinese participants were recruited and divided into four groups based on their age and personality: 20 introverted young adults; 20 extroverted young adults; 20 introverted mature adults and 20 extroverted mature adults. Through discourse completion tasks, which represented gratitude-eliciting scenarios, thanking speech acts were elicited and analyzed, with particular attention given to the use of direct and indirect strategies, specific gratitude strategies, titles, and (in)formal lexico-syntactic patterns. The results show that age influenced the formality of language, with older participants favoring more formal expressions. Personality played a significant role in strategy choice, with extroverts tending toward direct and efficient communication, while introverts favoring more structured and reflective approaches. Across all the groups, there was a general trend toward a low use of indirect strategies, suggesting a preference for efficient communication in modern contexts.