Ingratiation in Selected T.V Shows: A Socio-Pragmatic Analysis (Published)
Ingratiation is defined as a number of strategic behaviors that are developed mainly for influencing a specific other regarding the achievement of a person’s personal qualities. This study deals with a socio-pragmatic analysis of ingratiation in selected talk shows. It mainly aims at identifying the socio-pragmatic strategies used by the hosts and the guests in the selected talk shows for achieving the influence related to ingratiation. The problem of this study is that the use of ingratiation by the selected guests and hosts in the selected talk shows have not been investigated. This study hypothesizes that the selected participants in these talk shows have used different devices like speech acts, presuppositions, politeness, impoliteness strategies and their use of such strategies are related to different social factors like gender, age, religion, culture and status to achieve the impact related to ingratiation. Furthermore, it hypothesizes that ingratiation is a social psychological strategy that is based on linguistic factors in order to achieve its success and it is a linguistic phenomenon and not only social psychological phenomenon. This strategy is significant since it reveals the different socio-pragmatic strategies used by the participants in these T.V shows to achieve the influence related to ingratiation. It is also significant since it reveals the importance of ingratiation
Keywords: American talk shows, Ingratiation, Socio-pragmatics, Speech Acts., politeness and impoliteness, pragmatic strategies, presuppositions, social factors