The ethnography of English compliment and compliment responses

Herbert, Robert Κ.

doi:10.1075/pbns.3.05her

Cited by 94 publications

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“…This finding is in accordance with the results from other studies that stated the formulaic nature of compliments (Holmes 1986;Herbert 1989;Golato 2005). Besides, more than half of the compliments were simple, brief, and isolated utterances, that is, compliments that enhanced the face of the other not being accompanied by or modified by sub-acts or supporting movements.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Face-enhancing compliments in informal conversations in Valencian Spanish

García

2018

Borealis

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ABSTRACT. This article presents the results of an analysis conducted on politeness in informal conversations in Peninsular Spanish, specifically on the use of compliments in casual Valencian Spanish with face-enhancing effects. Face-enhancing compliments typically have the primary function of constituting and reinforcing the face of the addressee. The compliments that were analyzed consisted of positive comments about the complimentees' belongings, people related to them, their actions, and their qualities. Most of these face-enhancing compliments were exchanged in situations defined by a high degree of communicative immediacy (Koch & Oesterreicher 1985) and conventionality. The settings where these compliments were produced, plus their discursive, structural and formal features, illustrate their formulaic nature. Among the most important of these features is the fact that there is a predominance of faceenhancing compliments formulated as declarative, copulative and exclamatory sentences. Most of these compliments contain a short repertoire of adjectives with a positive meaning, and are modified by intensifiers that help to reinforce and guarantee the faceenhancing effect of the speech act. They usually consist of isolated utterances occupying a second turn position in adjacency pairs. Lastly, their addressees rarely acknowledged these compliments explicitly.Keywords. Politeness; face-enhancing; compliments; Valencian Spanish; informal conversations RESUMEN. Este artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio sobre la cortesía en la conversación informal española; concretamente, sobre el uso de cumplidos valorizadores en el español valenciano coloquial. La función principal de un cumplido valorizador es constituir y reforzar la imagen de su destinatario. Los cumplidos aquí analizados consistieron en comentarios positivos sobre las posesiones del cumplimentado, sobre personas relacionadas con él, sus acciones y/o sus cualidades. La mayor parte de estos cumplidos fueron intercambiados en situaciones caracterizadas por un alto grado de inmediatez comunicativa (Koch y Oesterreicher 1985) y de ritualidad. Los escenarios en los que se emitieron dichos cumplidos, así como sus rasgos discursivos, estructurales y formales, ilustran la naturaleza formularia de los mismos. Entre estos rasgos destaca el hecho de que hay un predominio de cumplidos valorizadores formulados como oraciones declarativas, copulativas y exclamativas. La mayoría de estos cumplidos contiene un breve repertorio de adjetivos con significado positivo y están modificados por intensificadores que ayudan a reforzar y garantizar el efecto cortés valorizador del acto de habla. Estos cumplidos suelen consistir en enunciados aislados y ocupar el segundo turno de un par adyacente. Finalmente, los destinatarios de estos cumplidos rara vez los aceptan directamente.Palabras clave. Cortesía; valorización de la imagen; cumplidos; español de Valencia; conversaciones informales

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Face-enhancing compliments in informal conversations in Valencian Spanish

García

2018

Borealis

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“…The results showed that the differences in response type frequencies between men and women are more impressive than the differences in compliment. For example, female recipients tent to accept compliments from males, whereas compliments from Holmes (1988), Herbert (1989Herbert ( , 1990)'s researches could reveals influences of social status on compliment responses. In Holmes's research, complimenters tended to focus on recipient's skills or performance when participants of the conversation in different status.…”

Section: Studies On Influences Of Gender Social Status On Complimentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Explicit compliments can be easily recognized as compliments. Herbert (1989) divided the explicit compliment into four types: A. the adjectival explicit compliments, B. the adverbial explicit compliments, C. the verbal explicit compliments and D. the nominal explicit compliments. Examples are as follows: A. your dress is very beautiful.…”

Section: Previous Studies On Compliments and Compliment Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Pragmatic Patterns of Chinese College English Learners’ Compliment Responses

Bai¹

2015

IJEL

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The purpose of this research is to investigate the pragmatic features of Chinese college EFL learners' compliment responses (CR) in English. Since nowadays there is a large population learning English in China and there are limited researches on how the English language is used by Chinese EFL learners, to study the patterns of Chinese EFL learners' use of English is significant.The data of this study were collected by role play. Twelve short films which contain compliments from native English speakers were designed and recorded. These scenes were controlled by four variables: gender, social status, types of compliments and the formality of the situation. Then these short films were played to 360 Chinese undergraduate students which were divided into 12 groups. The compliment responses of these participants were recorded immediately. Then, these records were transcribed and the data was analyzed statistically with the reference of the four variables.The results of the analysis indicate that a majority of Chinese EFL learners tend to accept the compliment while seldom Chinese EFL learners still apply non agreement as their CR strategy. Also, Chinese EFL learners prefer to apply a mixed CR strategy when they are complimented and they prefer to accommodate a combined pragmatics which is based on Chinese and English pragmatics. Chinese EFL learners could respond to compliments in English in several CR strategies that did not discussed in previous studies. The four variables of gender, social status, types of compliments and the formality of the situation have a huge influence on Chinese English learners' responses to compliments in English.

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“…Holmes (1986,1987,1988) examined compliments and compliment responses in New Zealand English. Herbert (1986Herbert ( ,1989) did studies concentrating on native speakers ofEnglish in both South Africa andNew York. Wolfson (1981Wolfson ( , 1983Wolfson ( , 1984 and Wolfson and Manes The current study ofcompliments attempts to fill gaps in previous studies with respect to three main points.…”

Section: Focus Of This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Compliments in the classroom: gender and status differences in Midwestern American English

Riesberg

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The ethnography of English compliment and compliment responses

Cited by 94 publications

References 0 publications

Face-enhancing compliments in informal conversations in Valencian Spanish

Face-enhancing compliments in informal conversations in Valencian Spanish

On the Pragmatic Patterns of Chinese College English Learners’ Compliment Responses

Compliments in the classroom: gender and status differences in Midwestern American English

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