International Journal of Language & Linguistics

Georgian Blessing Formulas from the Standpoints of Face and Politeness Theories
Nino Daraselia

Abstract
Current Georgian speech etiquette, whether formal, neutral, or informal, is abundant in blessing formulas and well-wishing phrases. Quite often in Georgian culture blessings serve as essential elements of the rituals of greeting, leave-taking, thanking, expressing condolences, congratulating, showing sympathy, toasting etc. Moreover, alongside some standard polite formulas the Georgian language employs blessings as their substitutes and emotionally charged equivalents. The paper examines Georgian blessing formulas and well-wishes from the perspectives of face and politeness theories with the aim of stating their cultural specificity and social value. In the study well-wishes are regarded as indirect blessings. For a comprehensive analysis of the data, the following issues have also been discussed: (a) general structural, cognitive, pragmatic, and discoursal peculiarities of Georgian blessings; (b) religious experience and the idea of God as reflected in the data under discussion; (c) types of meaning-function relationship in blessings.

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