Cover not available
Article published In:
Pragmatics
Vol. 29:3 (2019) ► pp.410–435

Appraising and reappraising of compliments and the provision of responses

Automatic and non-automatic reactions

ORCID logo | Shahrood University of Technology
The role of cognitive processes in compliment-response (CR) exchanges is an underdeveloped area of investigation. This article aims to probe whether Persian speakers’ responses to compliments change in line with their appraisals of the situation. To achieve this aim, Persian speakers’ responses to compliments are analysed based on their first and second appraisals of the event. In this study, with a focus on the CR exchanges, Persian speakers (N = 160) were observed and audio-recorded during everyday conversation. The results of this study manifest that Persian speakers have distinct (and even opposite) reactions based on their first and second appraisal of compliments. This suggests, therefore, that Appraisal 1 and Appraisal 2 undergo different sociocognitive processes that reflect automatic and non-automatic responses to compliments. It is concluded that the relation between Appraisal 1 and Appraisal 2 is mostly contradictory rather than confirmatory, in that the first compliment is mostly appraised as a politeness strategy (a social lubricant), whereas the second compliment is frequently appraised as purposeful or strategic praise. In addition, the first compliment is responded to automatically, whereas the second compliment is approached non-automatically.
Keywords: appraisal, compliment responses, Persian speakers, pragmatics, speech acts
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Review of the literature
  • 3.Method
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Macro strategies in R1 and R2
    • 4.2Compliment 1 and appraisal 1
    • 4.3Compliment 2 and appraisal 2
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 18 June 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.18016.mor
References (45)
References
Ahmadi, Nader, and Fereshteh Ahmadi. 1998. Iranian Islam: The Concept of the Individual. London: MacMillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Allami, Hamid, and Maryam Montazeri. 2012. “Iranian EFL Learners’ Compliment Responses.” System 40 (4): 466–482. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ansarin, Ali Akbar, and Mostafa Morady Moghaddam. 2016. “Complimenting Functions by Native English Speakers and Iranian EFL Learners: A Divergence or Convergence?” Applied Research on English Language 5 (1): 51–76.Google Scholar
Austin, John Langshaw. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bagozzi, Richard P., Nancy Wong, and Youjae Yi. 1999. “The Representation of Affect in Independent- and Interdependent-based Cultures.” Cognition and Emotion 131: 641–672. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen, and Beverly S. Hartford. 2005. Intercultural Pragmatics: Exploring Institutional Talk. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cheng, Dongmei. 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
Danziger, Roni. 2018. “Compliments and Compliment Responses in Israeli Hebrew: Hebrew University in Jerusalem Students in Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 1241: 73–87. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Farghal, Mohammed, and Mahmoud A. Al-Khatib. 2001. “Jordanian College Students’ Responses to Compliments: A Pilot Study.” Journal of Pragmatics 331: 1485–1502. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Golato, Andrea. 2002. “German Compliment Responses.” Journal of Pragmatics 341: 547–571. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, Marjorie H., Asta Cekaite, and Charles Goodwin. 2012. “Emotion as Stance.” In Emotion in Interaction, ed. by Marja-Leena Sorjonen, and Anssi Peräkylä, 16–41. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heidari, Mohammad A., Mohsen Rezazadeh, and A. Eslami Rasekh. 2009. “A Contrastive Study of Compliment Responses among Male and Female Iranian Teenage EFL Learners.” The International Journal of Language, Society and Culture 291: 18–31.Google Scholar
Herbert, Robert K. 1990. “Sex-based Differences in Compliment Behaviour.” Language in Society 191: 219–224. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holmes, Janet. 1988. “Paying Compliments: A Sex-preferential Politeness Strategy.” Journal of Pragmatics 12 (4): 445–465. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Izadi, Ahmad, and Farzaneh Zilaie. 2015. “Refusal Strategies in Persian.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics 25 (2): 246–264. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Karimnia, Amin, and Akbar Afghari. 2011. “Compliments in English and Persian Interaction: A Cross-cultural Perspective.” Jezikoslovije 12 (1): 27–50.Google Scholar
Kasper, Gabriele. 2008. “Data Collection in Pragmatics Research.” In Culturally Speaking: Culture, Communication and Politeness Theory, ed. by H. Spencer-Oatey, 279–303. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Lombardi Vallauri, Edoardo. 2016. “Implicits as Evolved Persuaders.” In Pragmeme and Theories of Language Use, ed. by K. Allan, A. Capone, and I. Kecskes, 725–748. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lorenzo-Dus, N. 2001. “Compliment Responses among British and Spanish University Students: A Contrastive Study.” Journal of Pragmatics 331: 107–127. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maíz-Arévalo, Carmen. 2012. ““Was that a Compliment?” Implicit Compliments in English and Spanish.” Journal of Pragmatics 44 (8): 980–996. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mazzone, Marco. 2013. “Automatic and Controlled Processes in Pragmatics.” In Perspectives on Linguistic Pragmatics, ed. by A. Capone, F. Lo Piparo, and M. Carapezza, 443–468. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mey, Jacob L. 2001. Pragmatics. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Mohajernia, Reza, and Hassan Solimani. 2013. “Different Strategies of Compliment Responses Used by Iranian EFL Students and Australian English Speakers.” Journal of Language Teaching and Research 4 (2): 340–347. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Morady Moghaddam, Mostafa. 2017. “Politeness at the Extremes: Iranian Women’s Insincere Responses to Compliments.” Language and Dialogue 7 (3): 414–432.Google Scholar
Motaghi-Tabari, Shiva, and Louise de Beuzeville. 2012. “A Contrastive Study of Compliment Responses among Persian and Australians: The Effects of Exposure to a New Speech Community.” Applied Research in English 1 (1): 21–42.Google Scholar
Mustapha, Abolaji Samuel. 2011. “Compliment Response Patterns among Speakers of Nigerian English.” Journal of Pragmatics 431: 1335–1348. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Myers, Greg. 1991. “Politeness and Certainty: The Language of Collaboration in an Al Project.” Social Studies of Science 21 (1): 37–73. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nkwain, Joseph. 2011. “Complimenting and Face: A Pragma-stylistic Analysis of Appraisal Speech Acts in Cameroon Pidgin English.” Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 43 (1): 60–79. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ochs, Elinor. 1996. “Linguistic Resources for Socializing Humanity.” In Rethinking Linguistic Relativity, ed. by John J. Gumperz, and Stephen C. Levinson, 407–437. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pomerantz, Anita. 1978. “Compliment Responses: Notes on the Co-operation of Multiple Constraints.” In Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, ed. by Jim Schenkein, 79–112. New York, San Francisco, London: Academic Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Razmjoo, Seyyed Ayatolla, Elyas Barabadi, and Ali Arfa. 2013. “An Investigation into the Speech Act of Compliment Response in Persian.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature 2 (1): 44–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rees-Miller, Janie. 2011. “Compliments Revisited: Contemporary Compliments and Gender.” Journal of Pragmatics 43 (11): 2673–2688. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roseman, Ira J., and Craig A. Smith. 2001. “Appraisal Theory: Overview, Assumptions, Varieties, Controversies.” In Appraisal Processes in Emotion, ed. by Klaus R. Scherer, Angela Schorr, and Tom Johnstone, 3–20. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sadeghi, Elahe, and Gholam Reza Zarei. 2013. “Investigating the Use of Compliments in Persian and English: A Case Study of Iranian EFL Students.” Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Translation Studies 2 (2): 30–49.Google Scholar
Scarantino, Andrea. 2016. “The Philosophy of Emotions and its Impact on Affective Science.” In Handbook of Emotions (fourth edition), ed. by Lisa Feldman Barrett, Michael Lewis, and Jeannette M. Haviland-Jones, 3–48. New York, London: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Schneider, Walter, and Richard M. Shiffrin. 1984. “Automatic and Controlled Processing Revisited.” Psychological Review 91 (2): 269–276. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010. “Semantics and Pragmatic Conceptualizations within and Emerging Variety: Persian English.” In The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes, ed. by Andy Kirkpatrick, 442–456. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
. 2011. Cultural Conceptualisations and Language: Theoretical Framework and Applications (Vol. 11). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson. 1986. Relevance. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tang, Chen-Hsin, and Grace Qiao Zhang. 2009. “A Contrastive Study of Compliment Responses among Australian English and Mandarin Chinese Speakers.” Journal of Pragmatics 411: 325–345. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weigand, Edda. 2010. Dialogue: The Mixed Game. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1953. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Yousefvand, Zohreh. 2010. “Study of Compliment Speech act Realization Patterns across Gender in Persian.” Arizona Working Papers in SLA & Teaching 171: 91–112.Google Scholar
Cited by (8)

Cited by eight other publications

Alharbi, Randa Saleh Maine, Pat Strauss & Lynn Grant
2024. Responses to English compliments on language ability. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 34:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Cenni, Irene & Camilla Vásquez
2023. “Jerry was a terrific host!” “You were a brilliant guest!”. Pragmatics and Society 14:1 ► pp. 117 ff. DOI logo
Makuchowska, Marzena
2023. “I look with deep gratitude and admiration…” – praising and complimenting in papal speeches. Journal of Politeness Research 19:1 ► pp. 31 ff. DOI logo
Landone, Elena
2022. Recording and Transcription. In Methodology in Politeness Research [Advances in (Im)politeness Studies, ], ► pp. 181 ff. DOI logo
Dendenne, Boudjemaa
2021. Complimenting on-the-go: Features from colloquial Algerian Arabic. Journal of Pragmatics 172 ► pp. 270 ff. DOI logo
Morady Moghaddam, Mostafa
2021. Book review. Journal of Pragmatics 180 ► pp. 114 ff. DOI logo
Morady Moghaddam, Mostafa
2023. Discourse markers in L2 learners' responses to teacher‐generated compliments during classroom interaction. Foreign Language Annals 56:4 ► pp. 1035 ff. DOI logo
Sadeghi, Karim & Zahra Jalilzadeh Mohammadi
2021. Compliment Response (CR) patterns among English vs. Persian teachers: Cultural transmission of CR behavior?. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 17:1-2 ► pp. 153 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 july 2024. 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.