Article published in:
Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 8:3 (2017) ► pp. 421–446

Compliment response patterns between younger and older generations of Persian speakers

| Urmia University
| Urmia University

The majority of studies on compliment response (CR) have investigated CR patterns and norms among different cultural groups and communities. The present study investigated the shifting of CR patterns across generations within the same speech community. To this end, 272 Persian speakers were chosen from among high school students and teachers. A discourse completion task (DCT) with four complimenting situations was administered. The findings revealed that the new generation of Persian speakers, regardless of their gender, had shifted their CR patterns and overwhelmingly accepted compliments. This change is attributed to the changing interpretations and conceptions of politeness and to the influx of English culture, through exposure to English media, internet, TV series, films, etc., among the new generation of Persian speakers.

Keywords: politeness, compliment response, exposure, generation shift, DCT, Persian
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Theoretical framework
    • 2.2CR and cross cultural studies
    • 2.3CR and gender
  • 3.The present study
    • 3.1Design
    • 3.2Participants
    • 3.3Instrument
    • 3.4Procedure
    • 3.5Scoring and data analysis
      • Accepting super-strategy
      • Deflecting/evading superstrategy
      • Rejecting superstrategy
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Results for the whole population
    • 4.2Results for the male participants
    • 4.3Results for the female participants
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 October 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.8.3.05sar
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