Tall poppies and egalitarianism in Australian discourse
From key word to cultural value
In Australian English, tall poppies are usually individuals who, on the basis of unwarranted self-adulation, itself a consequence of success, amassed fortune or fame, have become targets for criticism; or, less frequently, individuals who, overcome by success, amassed fortune or fame, and on the mistaken assumption that they are above the law, have engaged in unlawful behaviour, only to find that, eventually, the law catches up with them as well. They become the victims of a widespread tendency, known as the tall poppy syndrome, to scrutinize high achievers and cut down the tall poppies among them. Sometimes, especially in the world of science, the term tall poppy is also used to refer to outstanding scholars who deserve to be publicly acknowledged for their work. This paper looks at tall poppies and at the tall poppy syndrome in Australian discourse, and argues that the term tall poppy is a key word which, when studied closely in terms of its currency, its incidence in collocations, etc., reveals a great deal about the real nature of egalitarianism, one of Australia’s most often named cultural values.
Cited by
Cited by 27 other publications
Cheng, Joey T
2020.
Dominance, prestige, and the role of leveling in human social hierarchy and equality.
Current Opinion in Psychology 33
► pp. 238 ff.

Dasborough, Marie T
2021.
Tall Poppy. In
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science,
► pp. 8102 ff.

2017.
Tall Poppy. In
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science,
► pp. 1 ff.

Edwards, Emily & Anne Burns
2016.
Language Teacher-Researcher Identity Negotiation: An Ecological Perspective.
TESOL Quarterly 50:3
► pp. 735 ff.

Free, Sally-Ann
2017.
Group Support for Parents of Gifted Children in the Western Region of Melbourne, Australia. In
Giftedness and Talent,
► pp. 75 ff.

Frey, Rosemary Ann & Lawrence Alfred Powell
2009.
Protestant Work Ethic Endorsement and Social Justice Values in Developing and Developed Societies.
Psychology and Developing Societies 21:1
► pp. 51 ff.

Giorgi, Kyra
2014.
Culture As Identity. In
Emotions, Language and Identity on the Margins of Europe,
► pp. 103 ff.

Hunt, Christopher John, Valentina Piccoli, Karen Gonsalkorale & Andrea Carnaghi
2015.
Feminine Role Norms Among Australian and Italian Women: a Cross-Cultural Comparison.
Sex Roles 73:11-12
► pp. 533 ff.

Karunaratne, Kanishka & Simon M. Laham
2019.
Social Dominance Orientation Predicts Opposition to Hierarchy-Attenuating Intergroup Apologies.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 45:12
► pp. 1651 ff.

Kirkwood, Jodyanne & Lorraine Warren
2020.
Legitimizing entrepreneurial success in an environment of Tall Poppy syndrome: Lessons from celebrity entrepreneurs in New Zealand.
The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation 21:2
► pp. 101 ff.

Levisen, Carsten & Sophia Waters
Liu, Helena & Christopher Baker
2016.
White Knights: Leadership as the heroicisation of whiteness.
Leadership 12:4
► pp. 420 ff.

2016.
Ordinary Aristocrats: The Discursive Construction of Philanthropists as Ethical Leaders.
Journal of Business Ethics 133:2
► pp. 261 ff.

Peeters, Bert
2004.
Thou shalt not be a tall poppy: Describing an Australian communicative (and behavioral) norm.
Intercultural Pragmatics 1:1

Associate Professor Rodoula H. Tsiotsou and Professor Jochen Wirtz, Mitsis, Ann & Civilai Leckie
2016.
Validating and extending the sport brand personality scale.
Journal of Service Theory and Practice 26:2
► pp. 203 ff.

Sadow, Lauren
Schnurr, Stephanie & Angela Chan
2009.
Politeness and leadership discourse in New Zealand and Hong Kong: A cross-cultural case study of workplace talk.
Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture 5:2

Schoon, Alette
2012.
Dragging young people down the drain: the mobile phone, gossip mobile websiteOutoiletand the creation of a mobile ghetto.
Critical Arts 26:5
► pp. 690 ff.

Sharifian, Farzad
2008.
Cultural schemas in L1 and L2 compliment responses: A study of Persian-speaking learners of English.
Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture 4:1

Sinkeviciute, Valeria
2014.
“When a joke's a joke and when it's too much”: Mateship as a key to interpreting jocular FTAs in Australian English.
Journal of Pragmatics 60
► pp. 121 ff.

Warren, Lorraine, Jason Mika & Farah Palmer
2017.
How does enterprise assistance support Māori entrepreneurs? An identity approach.
Journal of Management & Organization 23:6
► pp. 873 ff.

Winterstorm Värlander, Sara, Ingela Sölvell & Kim Klyver
2020.
Entrepreneurship as a vocational choice in contested entrepreneurship communities: The role of entrepreneurs' justification strategies.
Journal of Business Venturing 35:3
► pp. 106006 ff.

Wong, Jock
2010.
The “triple articulation” of language.
Journal of Pragmatics 42:11
► pp. 2932 ff.

Yates, Lynda
2017.
Learning how to speak: Pronunciation, pragmatics and practicalities in the classroom and beyond.
Language Teaching 50:2
► pp. 227 ff.

[no author supplied]
2009.
Backmatter. In
World Englishes [
Applications of Cognitive Linguistics [ACL], ],

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 17 march 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.