Thanking and Politeness in Japanese: Balancing Acts in Interaction synthesizes previous work on thanking, politeness and Japanese pragmatics and crystallises the theoretical underpinnings of thanking, how it is realized linguistically and the social meaning and significance of this aspect of Japanese communication. The book employs three empirical studies to reveal conversational participants' collaborative work in thanking episodes, specifically, their acts of balancing obligations. It illuminates the mutually dependent nature of social interaction in Japanese and beyond, and suggests a new theoretical framework in understanding what is expected in social interaction across the languages. This is the definitive work on how Japanese people thank one another, and will provide ongoing value to second language Japanese teachers, textbook writers and academics seeking to make sense of, and define, this beautifully subtle, complex yet essential speech act in Japanese.

This book synthesizes previous work on thanking, politeness and Japanese pragmatics and crystallises the theoretical underpinnings of thanking, how it is realized linguistically and the social meaning and significance of this aspect of Japanese communication.