Abstract
While compliments are generally paid as a means of ‘maintaining positive social relationships’ (Ruhi and Dogan 2001: 342), they can also serve multiple functions depending on the value system of a particular community (Sifianou 1999: 52). Aside from creating solidarity (Manes and Wolfson 1981: 130, Herbert 1986: 77, 82), compliments are also used to seek information (Jaworski 1995, Sifianou 2001), make indirect requests (Holmes 1995, Sifianou 2001), reinforce desired behavior (Jaworksi 1995), display deference and respect (Daikuhara 1986 cited in Baba 1999: 9) or even as forms of teasing (Jaworski 1995) and verbal harassment (Holmes 1995). Given their versatility and flexibility, compliments feature quite regularly in everyday discourse (Yu 2003: 1687) and ‘frequently appear as reinforcing devices together with, instead of or in response to, other speech acts’ (Sifianou 2001: 394).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Al Falasi, H. 2007 Just say ‘thank you’: A study of compliment responses. The Linguistics Journal 2 (1): 28–42.
Apte, M. L. 1974 ‘Thank you’ and South Asian languages: A comparative sociolinguistic study. Linguistics 136: 67–89.
Baba, J. 1999 Interlanguage Pragmatics: Compliment Responses by Learners of Japanese and English as a Second Language. Munich: LINCOM Europa.
Brown, P. and S. C. Levinson 1987 Strategies for doing face threatening acts. In P. Brown and S. C. Levinson (eds) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cedar, P. 2006 Thai and American responses to compliments in English. The Linguistics Journal 1 (2): 6–28.
Chen, E. S-H. 2003 Compliment response strategies in Mandarin Chinese: Politeness phenomenon revisited. Concentric: Studies in English Literature and Linguistics 29 (2): 157–84.
Chen, R. 1993 Responding to compliments: A contrastive study of politeness strategies between American English and Chinese speakers. Journal of Pragmatics 20: 49–75.
Chen, R. and D. Yang 2010 Responding to compliments in Chinese: Has it changed? Journal of Pragmatics 42: 1951–63.
Golato, A. 2002 German compliment responses. Journal of Pragmatics 34: 547–71.
Golato, A. 2005 Compliments and Compliment Responses: Grammatical Structure and Sequential Organisation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Gu, Y. 1990 Politeness phenomena in modern Chinese. Journal of Pragmatics 14: 237–57.
Han, C-H. 1992 A comparative study of compliment responses: Korean females in Korean interactions and in English interactions. Working Papers in Educational Linguistics 8 (2): 17–31.
Herbert, R. K. 1986 Say ‘thank you’ — or something. American Speech 61 (1): 76–88.
Herbert, R. K. 1990 Sex-based differences in compliment behaviour. Language in Society 19: 201–24.
Holmes, J. 1995 Women, Men and Politeness. London: Longman, 114–53.
Huth, T. 2006 Negotiating structure and culture: L2 learners’ realisation of L2 compliment–response sequences in talk-in-interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 38: 2025–50.
Jaworski, A. 1995 ‘This is not an empty compliment!’ Polish compliments and the expression of solidarity. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 5 (1): 63–94.
Lee, C. L. 2009 Compliments and responses during Chinese New Year celebrations in Singapore. Pragmatics 19 (4): 519–41.
Leech, G. 1983 Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.
Lorenzo-Dus, N. 2001 Compliment responses among British and Spanish university students: A contrastive study. Journal of Pragmatics 33: 107–27.
Ma, R. 1996 Saying ‘yes’ for ‘no’ and ‘no’ for ‘yes’: A Chinese rule. Journal of Pragmatics 25: 257–66.
Manes, J. and N. Wolfson 1981 The compliment formula. In F. Coulmas (ed.) Conversational Routine: Explorations in Standardized Communication Situations and Prepatterned Speech. New York: Mouton, 115–32.
Matsuura, H. 2004 Compliment-giving behaviour in American English and Japanese. JALT Journal 26 (2): 147–70.
Nelson, G. L., M. Al-Batal and E. Echols 1996 Arabic and English compliment responses: Potential for pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics 17 (4): 411–32.
Pomerantz, A. 1978 Compliment responses: Notes on the co-operation of multiple constraints. In J. Schenkein (ed.) Studies in the Organisation of Conversational Interaction. New York: Academic Press, 79–112.
Ruhi, S. and G. Dogan 2001 RT and compliments as phatic communication. In A. Bayraktaroglu and M. Sifianou (eds) Linguistic Politeness across Boundaries: The Case of Greek and Turkish. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 341–90.
Sharifian, F. 2008 Cultural schemas in L1 and L2 compliment responses: A study of Persian-speaking learners of English. Journal of Politeness Research 4: 55–80.
Sifianou, M. 1999 Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 52–3.
Sifianou, M. 2001 ‘Oh! How appropriate!’ Compliments and politeness. In A. Bayraktaroglu and M. Sifianou (eds) Linguistic Politeness across Boundaries: The Case of Greek and Turkish. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 391–430.
Spencer-Oatey, H., P. Ng and L. Dong 2000 Responding to compliments: British and Chinese evaluative judgements. In H. Spencer-Oatey (ed.) Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport through Talk across Cultures. London: Continuum, 98–120.
Tang, C. H. and G. Q. Zhang 2009 A contrastive study of compliment responses among Australian English and Mandarin Chinese speakers. Journal of Pragmatics 41: 325–45.
Valdes, G. and C. Pino 1981 Muy a tus órdenes: compliment responses among Mexican-American bilinguals. Language in Society 10 (1): 53–72.
Yu, M.C. 2003 On the universality of face: evidence from Chinese compliment response behaviour. Journal of Pragmatics 35: 1679–710.
Yuan, Y. 2002 Compliments and compliment responses in Kunming Chinese. Pragmatics 12 (2): 183–226.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Jennifer Quah Xiao Min
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Min, J.Q.X. (2015). Compliment Responses among Malaysian Multilinguals. In: Beeching, K., Woodfield, H. (eds) Researching Sociopragmatic Variability. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137373953_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137373953_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-37394-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-37395-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)