JJMLL » JJMLL Issues
A Sociopragmatic Study of Intra-Gender Compliment Responses by
Saudi College Students
Abstract
This study examines compliment responses in Hejazi Arabic as used by Saudi college students. It focuses on the types of compliment responses used, the relationship of the speaker’s gender with his/her compliment behavior, and the sociocultural values attached to this behavior. Examples of compliment responses were elicited from King Abdulaziz University students using a number of compliment formulas that are generally considered to be very common in Hejazi Arabic. The compliment responses were analyzed in terms of their semantic, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic characteristics, based on Leech’s (1983) politeness maxims and the face-management approach of Brown and Levinson (1987). The analysis shows that the speakers, especially women, accept the compliment paid to them in the majority of the compliment responses collected, which can be accounted for by Leech’s Approbation, Tact and Agreement Maxims in which the interlocutors emphasize their closeness with each other. In accordance with face-politeness, the dominance of the acceptance compliment responses makes them as positive politeness strategies in which the compliment recipient negotiates or offers solidarity with the complimenter. In examining the concepts of complimenting in culture-specific contexts, this research provides further data to understand, illustrate and test the abovementioned politeness models. It also contributes to sociolinguistic theory by examining variation in the use of compliment responses in same-sex interactions.
Keywords: : Compliments; Compliment Responses; Gender; Hejazi Arabic; Politeness Maxims, Positive Politeness.Authors: Fathi Migdadi
Doi: https://doi.org/10.47012/jjmll.13.1.9
Cited by: Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literatures (JJMLL), 2021, 13 (1), 143-166
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