Publications

Publication details [#61129]

Placencia, María Elena, Amanda Lower and Hebe Powell. 2016. Complimenting behaviour on Facebook. Responding to compliments in American English. Pragmatics and Society 7 (3) : 339–365.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Language as a subject
Place, Publisher
John Benjamins
Journal DOI
10.1075/ps

Annotation

Compliment responses in face-to-face interaction have been extensively studied in different languages and cultures. Studies on complimenting behaviour in social-digital contexts are beginning to emerge (cf. Cirillo 2012; Placencia and Lower 2013; Maíz-Arévalo 2013). This paper aims to contribute to this emerging body of work by examining the responses to compliments made on Facebook (FB) by a group of women within an FB network in the US. While they received 1057 compliments, they produced only 205 responses. These results contrast with findings for face-to-face interactions, where non-response is exceptional, suggesting a strong influence of the medium on social norms. Regarding compliments which were responded to, acceptance predominated over rejection, in line with previous work within English-speaking communities (cf. Holmes 1986). Supplementary data from interviews with a group of American FB users revealed that their expectations are, overall, different from face-to-face interaction, with various factors influencing their compliment response behaviour.