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A Pragmatic Study of Compliments and Compliment Responses in a Dream in Red Mansions

Author: ChenXueJiao
Tutor: YuXiuCheng
School: Northeast Normal University
Course: Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Keywords: Compliment Speech Act Compliment Responses Social Variables
CLC: H13
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2011
Downloads: 70
Quote: 0
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Abstract


Compliment speech act is a favorable topic in linguistic studies. It is a positive affirmation and evaluation of the addressee or something related to the addressee, which is often used to enhance relations and maintain solidarity between the interlocutors. At present, studies on CSAs are mostly based on English-spoken communities, and few studies make an investigation of Chinese CSAs. Chinese is one of the oldest languages in the world and it is still spoken as a native language by billions of people. But Chinese culture values are different from those in English-spoken countries, and these differences must be exhibited in CSAs. Therefore, it is necessary and crucial to make a study of Chinese CSAs.This thesis makes a detailed study of Chinese CSAs and CRs based on speech act theories and politeness principles. The focuses are on the realization patterns of compliments the complimented topics and CR strategies. At the same time the author will examine the social factors which affect the use of compliments and CR. Therefore, the author has proposed four research questions:⑴What are the realization patterns of CSAs?⑵What are topics of compliments?⑶How do people respond to compliments?⑷What social factors affect the use of compliments and CRs?The research methodology is a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis. The data are collected from Chinese classic novel“A Dream in Red Mansions”. There are altogether 380 pieces of CSAs. All of these data are analyzed using a statistical and inductive method based on the research questions. The results of the study shows that there are ten possible syntactic structures in Chinese compliments and the most frequently used structures include“(ADV)(NP)NP (ADV) ADJ.”,“(ADV)(PRO/NP ) (ADV) (Neg)是(is)(ADV)(ADJ) NP.”and“(PRO/ NP) (ADV) ADJ NP.”. Many Chinese compliments rely on adjectives to express compliments, and some adverbs, verbs, nouns, idioms can also express compliments.“好”and“是”are the most frequently used adjectives and adverbs.Topics of compliments include appearance, possessions, personality and ability. Personality and ability are addressors’favorite topics and compliments on appearance are very few. The responding strategies for compliments can be categorized into no response, agreement and non-agreement. No response is the most frequently used strategy, but within the other two strategies, twelve specific strategies can be classified. Among these 12 strategies, comment acceptance, return, explanation, qualification and scale down are all frequently used in responding. Three social variables, gender, age and social status affect CSAs and CRs. The study proves that there is a gender difference between male and female in their choice of the complimented topics and CR strategies, and female show high frequencies of addressing compliments. Among the three age groups, the younger aged group is more active in addressing and responding to compliments. Social status affects CSAs and CRs, and different social classes have specific manners of addressing and responding to compliments.

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CLC: > Language, writing > Chinese > Semantics,vocabulary, word meaning ( exegesis )
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