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Research Project Compliments
Research Project Compliments
RESPONSES ACROSS
GENDER
CHRISTIAN ALFARO - SOFIA ESPINOSA - DIEGO SANTACRUZ
INTRODUCTION
This paper deals with the study of responding to
compliments. The research is conducted to find the way
respondents employ compliment and its response strategies
for topics of appearance, possession and skill or ability. This
research was carried out by means of interviews and the
use of DCT (Discourse Completion Task) with four
situational settings. .
CHAPTER I: THE PROBLEM
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM
-The relationship between language and society as well as
its complexity.
-Address interactions that include some kind of emotional
intentions.
-Possible causes that motivate women and men to act and
response to particular situations.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study and analysis of compliments since each
person applies different tools when complimenting
others.
Teachers, students, and researchers will know what is
involved in the process of complimenting and the
reasons behind it.
RESEARCH QUESTION
-Central Question
What are the similarities and differences between male and female
students of the English and French and English and Spanish program
from the University of Nariño when responding to compliments?
OBJECTIVES
-General Objective
Austin (1962)
AUSTIN’S LINGUISTIC THEORY
3 kind of acts:
A speech act which attributes credit to someone other than the speaker,
usually the person addressed, for some good. (Possession, characteristic,
skill, etc.).
Holmes, (1988:446)
-To soften face threatening act such as apologies, requests and criticism (Brown &
Levinson, 1978).
SAMPLE
6 undergraduate students, half female; half male (English and French/ English and Spanish program).
ANALYSIS OF DATA
4 situations
DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE
No acknowledgment 2 Return 2
ADDITIONAL CONCLUSIONS
-Both men and women use appreciation token and comment acceptance the most over
the 4 situations.
-They see appreciation token as the quickest way to acknowledge a compliment and to
pass that awkward moment.
-In what concerns compliments about character, both genres use disagreement and
comment acceptance at the most.
-Female participants have a high tendency to agree with compliments in order to show
politeness and solidarity.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AUSTIN, J. L. (1962). HOW TO DO THINGS WITH WORDS. OXFORD: CLARENDON PRESS.
BROWN, P & LEVINSON, S.C. (1987). POLITENESS: SOME PRINCIPLE IN LANGUAGE USE. CAMBRIDGE:
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
HERBERT, K (1986). SAY “THANK YOU” OR SOMETHING. AMERICAN SPEECH, 61(1), 76-88. (1990). SEX-
BASED DIFFERENCES IN COMPLIMENT BEHAVIOR. LANGUAGE IN SOCIETY, VOL. 19,201-224