Cover not available
Article published In:
Languages in Contrast
Vol. 17:1 (2017) ► pp.128–150

Beyond saying thanks

Compliment responses in American English and Peninsular Spanish

| Illinois State University
| Universitat de Lleida

This study explores how American English and Peninsular Spanish speakers respond to a compliment. Participants completed an online discourse completion test with nine different complimenting scenarios. A total of 14 different strategies for responding to a compliment were found in the data. Based on verbal reports on language use, it was found that Peninsular Spanish speakers do not compliment as often as American English speakers do. The data analysis also revealed that both language groups clearly prefer to accept a compliment, but whereas American English speakers regard a simple ‘thank you’ as an appropriate compliment response, Peninsular Spanish speakers prefer to agree with the complimented assertion by making a semantically fitted comment. Other differences include the importance of returning a compliment in American English and the need to scale down the illocutionary force of the compliment among Peninsular Spanish speakers.

Keywords: politeness, compliments, compliment responses, English, Spanish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.CRs in American English and Peninsular Spanish
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Respondents’ definition of compliments and frequency of use
    • 4.2Strategy type: Frequency and preference
    • 4.3Strategy use across social contexts
      • 4.3.1Returning the compliment
      • 4.3.2Scaling down the force of the compliment
      • 4.3.3Expressing humor
      • 4.3.4Disagreeing with and refusing a compliment
  • 5.Conclusions
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 13 February 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lic.17.1.06mir
References
Behnam, B. and Amizadeh, N.
2011 A comparative study of the compliments and compliment responses between English and Persian TV interviews. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies 17(1):65–78.Google Scholar
Bologna Declaration
1999 Bologna Process – European Higher Education Area. Available at [URL] [last accessed 21 June 2016]
Brezolin, A.
1995 Compliments and responses to compliments: A descriptive taxonomy. UNILETRAS 171:111–130.Google Scholar
Cedar, P.
2006 Thai and American responses to compliments in English. The Linguistics Journal 1(2):6–28.Google Scholar
Chen, R.
1993 Responding to compliments: A contrastive study of politeness strategies between American English and Chinese speakers. Journal of Pragmatics 20(1): 49–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Compliment and compliment response research: A cross-cultural survey. In Pragmatics across Languages and Cultures, A. Trosborg (ed.), 79–102 Berlin: De Guyter Mounton.Google Scholar
Chen, R. and Yang, D.
2010 Responding to compliments in Chinese. Has it changed? Journal of Pragmatics 42(7):1951–193. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cheng, D.
2011 New insights on compliment responses: A comparison between native English speakers and Chinese L2 speakers. Journal of Pragmatics 43(8):2204–2214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Choi, H. J.
2008 Pragmática intercultural: El acto de habla del cumplido en las culturas española y coreana. PhD Thesis, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Google Scholar
Felix-Brasdefer, J. C.
2010 Data collection methods in speech act performance: DCTs, role plays, and verbal reports. In Speech act performance: Theoretical, empirical, and methodologogical issues, E. Usó Juán & A. Martínez-Flor (eds), 42–56 Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Felix-Brasdefer, J. C. and Hasler-Barker, M.
2012 Complimenting and responding to a compliment in the Spanish FL classroom: From empirical evidence to pedagogical intervention. Linguistic Insights – Studies in Language and Communication 1321: 241–273.Google Scholar
Golato, A.
2002 German compliment responses. Journal of Pragmatics 34(5):547–571. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003 Studying compliment responses: A comparison of DCTs and recordings of naturally occurring talk. Applied Linguistics 24(1):90–121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Herbert, R.
1989 The ethnography of English compliments and compliment responses: a contrastive sketch. In Contrastive pragmatics, Wieslaw Oleksy (ed.), 3–35. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
1990 Sex-based differences in compliment behaviour. Language in Society 191:201–224. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holmes, J.
1986 Compliments and compliment responses in New Zealand English. Anthropological Linguistics 28(4):485–508.Google Scholar
1988 Paying compliments: A sex-preferential positive politeness strategy. Journal of Pragmatics 12(4):445–465. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1995 Women, men and politeness. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Huth, T.
2006 Negotiating structure and culture: L2 learners’ realization of L2 compliment-response sequences in talk-in-interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 38(12):2025–2050. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leech, G.
1983 Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Lorenzo-Dus, N.
2001 Compliments responses among British and Spanish university students: a contrastive study. Journal of Pragmatics 33(1). 107–127. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Manes, J and Wolfson, N.
1981 The compliment formula. In Conversational routine, F. Coulmas (ed.),115–132. The Hague: Mouton Publishers.Google Scholar
Mack, S. and Sykes, J.
2009 ¡Qué feíto estás tú también, cariño!: A Comparison of the Response to the Use of ‘Positive’ Irony for Complimenting in Peninsular and Mexican Spanish. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 21:305–346. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maíz-Arévalo, C.
2010 Intercultural pragmatics: A contrastive analysis of compliments in English and Spanish. In Discourse and Communication: Cognitive and Functional Perspectives, M. L. Blanco Gómez & J. I. Marín Arrese (eds.), 175–208 Madrid: Dykinson and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.Google Scholar
2012 At a loss for words or how to respond to compliments: A contrastive analysis of compliment response in English and Spanish. In New Perspectives on (Im)Politeness and Interpersonal Communication, L. Fernández Amaya, M. Hernández López, R. Gómez Morón, M. Padilla Cruz, M. Mejías Borrero and M. Relinque Barranca (eds), 157–163 Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Maíz-Arévalo, C. & García-Gómez, A.
2013 ‘You look terrific!’ Social evaluation and relationships in online compliments. Discourse Studies 15(6):735–760. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pomerantz, A.
1978 Compliment responses: notes on the co-operation of multiple constraints. In Studies in the organization of conversational interaction, J. Schenkein (ed.), 79–112 New York: Academic Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ramajo-Cuesta, A.
2012 Interlanguage Pragmatic Study on Lebanese learners of Spanish as a foreign language. The compliment sequence in Peninsular Spanish and Lebanese Colloquial Arabic. PhD Thesis, Antonio de Nebrija University.Google Scholar
Rees-Miller, J.
2011 Compliments revisited. Contemporary compliments and gender. Journal of Pragmatics 43(11):2673–2688. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rose, K.
2001 Compliments and compliment responses in Film: Implications for Pragmatics Research and Language Teaching. IRAL 39: 309–326.Google Scholar
Shardakova, M.
2012 Cross-cultural analysis of the use of humor by Russian and American English speakers. In Speech acts and politeness across languages and cultures, L. Ruiz de Zarobe and Y. Ruiz de Zarobe (eds), 197–237 Bern: Peter Lang, International Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Sharifian, F.
2008 Cultural schemas in L1 and L2 compliment responses: A study of Persian-speaking learners of English. Journal of Politeness Research: Language, Behavior, Culture 4(1):55–80. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Siebold, K.
2006 So schön finde ich den gar nicht: la cortesía verbal y las respuestas a los cumplidos en español y en alemán. Paper presented at III Coloquio Internacional del Programa de EDICE. Valencia: Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.
Valdes, G. and Pino, C.
1981 Muy a tus ordenes: Compliment responses among Mexican-American bilinguals. Language in Society 10(1):53–72. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yáñez, R.
1990 The complimenting speech act among Chicano women. In Spanish in the United States: Sociolinguistic issues, J. Bergen(ed.), 9–85 Washington, DC: Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 6 other publications

Czerwionka, Lori & Sydney Dickerson
2022. Spanish and English compliment responses in discourse. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education 7:1 ► pp. 88 ff. DOI logo
Loranc, Barbara, Shannon M. Hilliker & Chesla Ann Lenkaitis
2022. Virtual exchange and L2 pragmatic development: analysing learners' formulation of compliments in L2. The Language Learning Journal ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Mir, Montserrat
2020. Teaching and learning about Spanish L2 compliments in short-term study abroad. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education 5:2 ► pp. 230 ff. DOI logo
Mir, Montserrat & Josep Maria Cots
2019. The use of humor in Spanish and English compliment responses: A cross-cultural analysis. HUMOR 32:3 ► pp. 393 ff. DOI logo
Placencia, María Elena & Hebe Powell
2020. Chapter 4. “Tu masssss ❤ te amo”. In Complimenting Behavior and (Self-)Praise across Social Media [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 313], ► pp. 99 ff. DOI logo
Stoian, Claudia E.
2020. Speech Acts across Cultures: Teaching Compliment Exchanges. East-West Cultural Passage 20:1 ► pp. 145 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 february 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.