Sex-based differences in the form of English compliments and in the frequencies of various compliment response types are discussed. Based on a corpus of 1,062 compliment events, several differences in the form of compliments used by women and men are noted. Further, it is found that compliments from men are generally accepted, especially by female recipients, whereas compliments from women are met with a response type other than acceptance. These findings are set within a broader discussion of male–female differences in speech and the sociology of compliment work. Parallels are drawn between these sex-based differences and differences in norms for national varieties of English relating to the function and frequency of compliments as speech acts and to different response types elicited by diverse functional exploitations of compliment formulas in discourse. (Sex-based differences in language use, socioprag-matics, compliments/compliment responses, ethnography of speaking)

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.When you are complimented, the only response necessary is "Thank you." Don't disparage yourself. If someone admires your dress, don't say, "This old thing, I got it at a bargain basement sale."A simple thank you is sufficient. [Johnson 1979, 43-44] Adult Female: (addressing a five-year old boy) Those sure are nice sneakers you're wearing, Nathan. /pause/ Adult Male: (parent) Nathan, are you deaf? /pause/ Linda said she likes your sneakers. Say "thank you" [simultaneously pokes child in the back]. Child Male: Thank you [no eye contact]. Wolfson 1981 Wolfson , 1983Manes 1983). They noted, for example, that American English compliments display a limited range of syntactic patterns, for example, I like NP (Wow, I really like your hair), That's a ADJ NP (That' a neat jacket), and NP is ADJ (Your eyes are amazingly green). The manifest content of compliments also tends to be drawn from a small repertoire, e.g., personal appearance (especially clothing and hair), results of skill or effort, (new) possessions. Finally, Wolfson and Manes have suggested that the noncreativity in form and content of English compliments is related to their function in discourse. Specifically, they claim that the function of a compliment is to negotiate solidarity with the addressee. That is, speakers offer such compliments as part of a general conversational postulate MAKE HEARER FEEL GOOD (Goody 1978; Lakoff 1975). The formulaic nature of English compliments minimizes the possibility that they will be misinterpreted by addressees; compliments employ recognizable formulae precisely in order to be recognized for what they are: expressions of good will. The structure and content of compliments in American English have been described by Nessa Wolfson and Joan Manes in a series of interesting articles (Wolfson and Manes 1980; Manes and WolfsonSuch functional interpretations of language behavior are increasingly common in the study of language in context. As Garfinkel (1967) noted: it is not what people say that is important but rather what they mean to say. Sociolinguistics, deriving from the tradition of dialect geography, provided a valuable framework in which to study the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, 76 This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Mon, 28 Sep 2015 21:20:38 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AMERICAN SPEECH 61.1 (1986) treatment here, but there is some evidence that young children's behavior with respect to compliments differs from adults' behavior precisely because children have not acquired adult views and values. Consider, for example Adult Male: That's a nice dress, Kristen. You look beautiful. Child Female: I know.Adult Male: (commenting on child's kindergarten report) Wow, this is a v...

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