A study on english responses to compliments with reference to the vietnamese equivalents

BA THESIS A STUDY ON ENGLISH RESPONSES TO COMPLIMENTS WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS CÁCH ĐÁP LẠI NHỮNG LỜI KHEN NGỢI TRONG TIẾNG ANH CÓ THAM CHIẾU ĐẾN NGHĨA TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG

BA THESIS

A STUDY ON ENGLISH RESPONSES TO

COMPLIMENTS WITH REFERENCE TO THE

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS CÁCH ĐÁP LẠI NHỮNG LỜI KHEN NGỢI TRONG TIẾNG ANH CÓ THAM CHIẾU ĐẾN NGHĨA TƯƠNG

ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT

Student: TRAN THI THANH TAM Student code: 621209

Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Supervisor: HA THI LAN, MA

Hanoi – 2021

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES

A STUDY ON ENGLISH RESPONSES TO

COMPLIMENTS WITH REFERENCE TO THE

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS CÁCH ĐÁP LẠI NHỮNG LỜI KHEN NGỢI TRONG TIẾNG ANH CÓ THAM CHIẾU ĐẾN NGHĨA TƯƠNG

ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT

Student: TRAN THI THANH TAM Student code: 621209

Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Supervisor: HA THI LAN, MA

Hanoi – 2021

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report

entitled “a study on English responses to compliments with reference to the

Vietnamese equivalents” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

the degree of Bachelor in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement

in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2021

Tran Thi Thanh Tam

Approved by SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)

Date: ………

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART ONE : INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 RATIONALE 1

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 3

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION 3

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 4

1.6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY 4

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT 5

Chapter 1 LITERATURE REVIEW Definition of compliment ……… 5

1.1 REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME & ABROAD) 1.1.2 Related research 1 6

1.1.2 Related research 2 8

1.2 REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 9

1.2.1 Pragmatics 9

1.2.2 Speech acts 10

1.2.3 Politeness 16

1.3 RESEARCH ON COMPLIMENT RESPONSES 16

1.3.1 Definitions 16

1.3.2 Syntactic categories 17

1.3.3 Semantic categories of responses to compliments 20

1.3.4 English idiom to give someone a compliment 20

1.4 SUMMARY 23

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 24

2.1 RESEARCH GOVERNING PRINCIPLES 24

2.1.1 Research questions 24

2.1.2 Research hypothesis 24

2.1.3 Research types 24

2.1.4 Research approaches 25

2.1.5 Principles for data collection and data analysis 25

2.2 RESEARCH METHODS 27

2.3 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE STUDY 27

2.4 SUMMARY 27

PART THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29

3.1 A STUDY OF GIVING AND RESPONDING TO COMPLIMENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 29

3.1 1 Topics of compliment in English 29

3.1.2 Vietnamese findings 31

3.2 CATEGORIES OF COMPLIMENT RESPONSES 32

3.3 Differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese compliment responding 40

3.3.1 Similarities between English and Vietnamese compliment responding……… 40

3.3.2 Differences between English and Vietnamese compliment responding 40

Chapter 3: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR GIVING AND RESPONDING TO COMPLIMENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 42

3.1 SOME SUGGESTIONS 42

3.2 SUGGESTED TEACHING APPLICATION 44

3.3 SUMMARY……….45

Part FOUR CONCLUSION 46

1 Summary of the finding 46

2 Implications for the English language learning and teaching 46

2.1 Implications for learners 46

2.2 Implications for teachers 46

3 Limitations of the study 47

4 Suggestions for futher research 47 REFERENCES

ABSTRACT

The commending other or being for the most part applauded by others and reacting to praises is one of the particularly basic very social practices in individuals lives yet has its really own phonetic and very social attributes of every very local area and every fairly general public, or so they thought

From the complimenter's side, it's who praises, when to adulate toward the start, what to acclaim and how to applaud, from the individual's side, it's the reaction disposition and how to for the most part react to the commendation as for all intents and purposes needs be with explicit correspondence articles and circumstances in a big way All these collaborations are communicated for the most part by language comprising of words and non-verbal components (like motions), which basically is quite significant From an actually practical perspective, with the language behavior (speech acts), praise behavior belongs to the category of behavior (behabitives - 1 - comportementaux), actually contrary

to popular belief Toward this path, the investigation of essentially praises should particularly have the option to show articulations, or so they thought expressions of applause conduct and getting basically praises (reaction to praises) in various correspondence settings

From a sociolinguistic viewpoint, tribute conduct generally is concentrated

by the correspondence collaboration relationship with dissimilar investigation social layers, which definitely is quite significant Toward this path, as a variety, the applause and gathering of praises of the praiser and the beneficiary basically are considered affected by friendly classes like age, sex, occupation, specifically pay status, education

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE

Moving towards the 21st century, a large number of people are drawing attention

to communicate cross-cultural boundaries have experienced communication breakdowns with people from different first language backgrounds In fact, there are some who hold firmly to their belief that happens to anyone who wants to give compliments on a person from another country The main purpose of this thesis is to raise the awareness of culture gap It is done, focused on the comparison of the ways of giving compliments and responding to compliments between the English and the Vietnamese Carrying out a contrastive study on verbal responses to compliments in English and Vietnamese, I would like to obtain some insights that highlight both the similarities and differences of types

in English and Vietnamese strategies used to reply compliments by English and Vietnamese people

In the age of global communication, it is important and necessary to communicate effectively This requires language learners not only the knowledge of linguistic structure of the target language but also ability to use it appropriately in different situations, depending on factors such as settings, context and relationships between speakers (Washburn, 2001) Therefore, I

conducted the thematic research with the following content: “A study on English responses to compliments with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents” In the process of teaching and learning English, the pragmatic and

discourse use of responses to compliments have not been paid much attention to

As a result, learners with a good knowledge of language may fail in his real communication because of misunderstanding and then loss of confidence in communicating It is necessary that an investigation into this field should be carried out to contribute to a better process of teaching and learning English The study also attempts to suggest some useful implications in order to help

language learners improve their language skill to gain their purpose of social communication as well as to make the process of teaching and learning foreign language better

There are various research on sorts of speech acts, such as making a request, asking for permission, apologizing, and so on, by famous theorists to enhance learners' understanding of this issue, but few of them focus on the speech act of praise This is also a fascinating topic that piques the author's interest since it requires a high level of pragmatic knowledge on the part of the speaker and, as a result, is usually jam-packed with information about language learners' cultural orientation (In many languages, responding to compliments requires the language user to walk a narrow line between appearing boastful and ungrateful, depending on how he or she answers)

On the one hand, each country has its own culture and behavior Furthermore, there is no doubt that to be more successful in daily communication for English learners, the most important thing is to equip themselves with knowledge of the target language culture as well as practical knowledge and discourse In addition

to this, process of communication has also the function of the reactions takes place naturally; In fact, they serve more functions than at first glance, and responding to compliments is no exception A clear example being found to prove is that:

A: How lovely the house is!

B: Thank you

That is really a nice compliment, thank you!

You must be kidding!

Do you really think that? Really?

On the other hand, there are evidences for other people to the same compliment can be responded to in many ways by the recipient with different purposes Equally important, there is no denying that responses can bring conversations

closer, establish and maintain conversations, develop interpersonal relationships and understanding between interlocutors, or disrupt interactions

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1.2.1 Aims:

It is a well-documented fact that syntactic and pragmatic features of verbal responses to compliments in their contrast in English and Vietnamese, this study aims to describe and analyze different types of compliment responses in English and Vietnamese in order to improve understanding and effective use of verbal responses to compliments in teaching and learning English as a foreign language

1.2.2 Objectives:

- Define, analyze, explain the syntactic and pragmatic features of compliment responses in English and Vietnamese languages and find out the similarities and differences of these features in the two languages

- Present suggestions to help teachers and learners of English teach and learn English compliment responses in an effective way

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION

The study attempts to answer the following questions:

+ What are syntactic and pragmatic features of compliment responses in English and Vietnamese?

+ What are similarities and differences in the syntactic and pragmatic features of compliment responses in English and Vietnamese?

+ What suggestions are made to help teachers and learners of English teach and learn English compliment responses in an effective way?

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

All things considered this research will focus on vocal responses to compliments rather than nonverbal communication within the limits of the thesis

Furthermore, employment, sex, social statuses, geographic locations, and other social factors are considered in this thesis

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The goal of the study is to identify the similarities and differences in the syntactic and pragmatic components of replies complement in English and Vietnamese, with the hope of helping English learners in effectively using the language in a range of situations

The findings of the study might be beneficial in recommending some positive implications for improved compliment responses in teaching and learning

Following the aims, objectives and the scope of performing a study on English and Vietnamese responses to compliments in terms of syntactic and semantic features above

1.6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

This thesis includes three main parts and three chapters:

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Development

Part 3: Conclusion

Chapter 1: Literature review which generally analyze the theoretical background

of the study as well as the definition of the concept of compliment responses Chapter 2: Methodology of the study which are discussed to explain

Chapter 3: Findings and discussion where I figure out the strategy of responding

to compliments

Finally, references are respectably noted in the end of the study

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1 LITERATURE REVIEW Definition of compliment

This section will shed light into the definitions of compliment by main English dictionaries to offer an understanding about compliment responses The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2008) defines a compliment as “a remark that expresses approval, admiration or respect” and the Merriam Webster dictionary describes it as "an expression of esteem, respect, affection, or admiration; especially: an admiring remark” These definitions all have positive connotations based on the observer's observations in conversations

Other English dictionaries provide a more elaborate understanding of a compliment The Collins COBUILD English dictionary for advanced learners (2001) describes a compliment as “a polite remark that you say to someone to show that you like their appearance, appreciate their qualities, or approve of what they have done,” and can be used “when you want to express thanks, good wishes, or respect to someone in a formal way.” It also explains, “if you consider something that a person says or does as a compliment, it convinces you

of your own good qualities, and that the person appreciates you.” Adding another meaning to “an expression of praise, commendation, or admiration”, the Macquarie encyclopedic dictionary (2010) defines a compliment as “a formal act or expression of civility, respect, or regard.” From the above sets of definitions, it is implied that a compliment in English-speaking cultures can be performed in formal and informal settings, where complimenters use compliments to show their politeness, admiration, appreciation and approval of appearance, qualities and skills of complimenters The complimentee should also be convinced of their good qualities and the appreciation as expressed by the complimenter

A compliment is one form of speech acts and it can be defined as “an utterance containing a positive evaluation by the speaker to the addressee” (Liu,1997), which is positively valued by the speaker and the hearer So, through compliments, people can build up solidarity by providing positive evaluation, appreciation for good deeds, praise for achievement, or worsen relationship by intentionally or unintentional abusing compliments

According to Wolfson (1986), two-thirds of English compliments use the adjectives “nice, good, beautiful, pretty, great”, and 90% make use of just two verbs “like and love” (p.116) The lack of creativity in the form and content of English compliments is related to their function in discourse

Herbert (1986) demonstrates that compliments are used to “negotiate solidarity with the addressee” (p.76) Their aim is to make the addressee feel good and their formulaic nature minimizes the chance that they will be misinterpreted by the addressee

1.1 REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME & ABROAD) 1.1.2 Related research 1

There are several studies that are relevant to the research we will conduct Compliments are classed as "behabitives" by Austin (1962) in his book "How to

do things with words" Compliments is a "subcategory of congratulations, along with condolences and felicitations," according to Bach and Harnish [30, p 52]

Reading How to Do Things with Words starts off with a feeling of

frustration: Austin suggests a distinction and takes it back; then, he makes a new triple distinction; which he immediately, takes back again; and right after that,

he implies it yet again, but this time he just focuses on the illocutionary act for the most part of the rest of his lectures The performative force gives an utterance its meaning Austin now outlines three main factors for the happy functioning of the performative: (a’) speaker’s intentions when uttering the sentence (b’) the following of certain conventions depending on the context, and

(c’) speaker’s authority For instance, if I say ‘I do’, I will manage to get married only if I am in an actual wedding ceremony and I am the groom or the bride

Teacher: “this is excellent Jennie You’ve really done a nice job”

Compliments, according to Wierzbicka, are typically designed to make people feel good and are given to keep "good interpersonal relationships" [63, p 87]

They function as "social lubricants," according to Wolfson [65, p 89] Kerbat-definition Orecchioni's of complementing as a verbal gift [37, p 219] is another important description, emphasizing the give-and-take nature of complimenting Moreover, compliments are speech acts that are primarily aimed

at maintaining, improving or supporting the addressee’s face

Pomerantz (1978) was the first to investigate how people respond to compliments in American English She gave many instances of compliments and compliments responses, but she did not say how many each type of answer she got

In addition to, Herbert (1986) conducted a quantitative study of compliment responses in American English She divided compliment responses into three categories: agreement, non-agreement, and Other Interpretation

In New Zealand, Holmes (1988) studied compliments and compliment responses She studied the subjects that compliments alluded to statistically, as well as the frequency with which men and women gave and received praises Another area of investigation for these researchers is the link between gender and praise and compliment responses behavior Women pay and get more praises than men, according to Manes and Wolfson, and women's answers

to compliments are more directed toward social peace than men's Herbert (1990) focuses on the disparities in compliments and compliment responses between men and women From his corpus of 1062 compliment occurrences, he discovers that men's compliments are twice as likely to be accepted as women's,

that women are twice as likely to receive praises as men, and that compliments offered by males are considerably more likely to be accepted compliments as men, that compliments given by men are far more likely to be met with agreement – particularly by a female responder – and, among all interactional pairs (men-to-men, men-to-women, women-to-women, and women-to-men), men- to-men compliments are the most likely to be met with no acknowledgement (Herbert 1990: 213, Table 3)

1.1.2 Related research 2

On the one hand, a study of complimenting speech act in Australian English and Vietnamese was done by Suu (1990) The findings showed that similar syntactic patterns of complıments were used in English and Vietnamese, but the topics of compliments were different from one language to the other

On the other hand, Thai Thi Ngoc Lien (1993) carried out the research

"Complimenting in English and Vietnamese" This research investigates how compliments are expressed in English and Vietnamese, and at the same time examines the influence of students “mother tongue” and culture on the target language speech act performance Its aim is to provide Vietnamese learners of English with sociolinguistic information which will enable them to compliment

in the target language

In “A Vietnamese-English Cross-Cultural Study of Positive Politeness and Negative Politeness in Complimenting” [43], Le Phuong Binh (2008) emphasizes the usage of Positive Politeness and Negative Politeness techniques

in complimenting by both English and Vietnamese native speakers

The most famous in-depth research was carried out by Nguyen Van Quang (1999) under the title "Some Cross Cultural Differences in Vietnamese and American Ways of Complimenting and Responding to Compliments" The research investigated some major differences in giving and responding to compliments in intercultural Vietnamese-American communication with the

main focus on compliment topics, responding strategies, addressing forms, directness vs indirectness, and modality

1.2 REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.2.1 Pragmatics

One of the most important fields of linguistics is pragmatics According to George Yule (1997: 3) defines pragmatics as the study of:

- Speaker meaning

- How much more is communicated than is expressed

- A measure of relative distance

- Interactions between linguistic forms and the people who use it

It is difficult to give a correct definition for the question: What is pragmatics? We only know that it refers to the language in use And language in

use has connection with the term: “communication”, which is stated:

“Communication is, rather, the successful interpretation by an addressee of a

speaker’s intent in performing a linguistics act” (Georgia M Green, Natural

Language Understanding, p.1) Furthermore, “a linguistic act” is governed by a set of laws or standards that are appropriate for various civilizations

Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics that studies how individuals use language and what they say in different situations (Levinson 1983, p 9) It investigates the meaning of spoken words not just from the speaker's perspective, but also from the listener's (Yule 1996, p 3; Stadler 2013, p 2) Furthermore, pragmatics seeks to reveal the meaning of an utterance on three levels: the speaker's intentions, what the speaker has actually said, and the hearer's interpretation of what he or she has heard

As a result of this interaction, various cultures have diverse approaches to language How does pragmatics differ by culture, though? And how will students be able to identify this diversity? When the word "speech act" is used, such questions will be easier to answer, because talking to pragmatics might

sometimes imply talking to speech actions Therefore, we'll move on to discussing speech acts

1.2.2 Speech acts

The notion of a speech acts, proposed by Austin (1962, 1970, 1996) and later expanded by a number of linguists and philosophers of language, is one of the most significant and relevant concepts in the philosophy of language and linguistics, notably in pragmatics (Searle, 1969, 1976, 1979; Bach & Harnish, 1979)

In fact, there are some who hold firmly to their belief that speech acts is considered culturally specific and varies from culture to culture (Baicchi, 2009; Huang, 2010) Moreover, in many cultures and language groups, according to Baicchi (2009, p 212), speech acts differ in the extent to which they communicate

Compliments occur as speech actions within the category of behabitives, according to Austin's Speech Act Theory (1962) (1962, p 159) When it comes

to praise answers, Searle (1979, p 15) places the word "thank" in the category of expressives and explains why each compliment response should be classified as

an expressive differently A compliment and its response creates a complicated speech situation, a binary speech act that has gotten a lot of attention in pragmatics, especially from the standpoint of cross-cultural communication Since the introduction of the speech acts theory, individuals have attempted

to think in new ways It is often said that a large number of people sole purpose

of a "statement" was to "describe" some state of affairs or to "claim" certain

facts, this had to be done honestly or lying (JL Austin, How to Do It With Words, p 1) Actually, there are certain statements that we cannot tell if they are

"true" or "false"

In daily life, people use language to communicate with each other, and this

is the way of "acting with words" (doing things with words) that Austin (1962)

to update, they talk, exchange information or make a comment, and the words follow one after another Usually the turns appear in pairs called adjacent pairs including 2 utterances such as greeting - greeting, inviting - accepting, compliment - disapproval/denial, compliment - approve/accept etc…

B: Well, thank you (Pomerantz, 1978, p 85)

Or in Vietnam, we often ask this kind of question:

E.g “ Cậu đang làm gì thế ?” (What are you doing?)

Although most Vietnamese people are not interested in knowing where his buddy is going, he simply asks in order to strengthen his relationship with the listener by demonstrating his concern through such a question As a result, his inquiry is simply accepted, and it is part of the Vietnamese welcome ritual

Such types of examples have aided theorists in providing a full description

of speech actions J.Austin was the first to introduce the concept of speech

actions, he stated that:

In general, speech acts are acts of communication To communicate is to express a certain attitude, and the type of speech act being performed corresponds to the type of attitude being expressed For example, a statement expresses a belief, a request expresses a desire, and an apology expresses regret As an act of communication, a speech act succeeds if the audience identifies, in accordance with the speaker's intention, the attitude being expressed

When the concept of speech acts was introduced, we all understood that it

is the activities that are done through speech or through the actions that occur when someone says anything There is no denying that actions specifically named like apology, praise, invitation, request, promise or complaint in English

Speech acts plays the important role in real-life To put it another way, it's the language that's being used As a result, it is obvious that there is no single phrase – single function connection If we simply look at the speaker's remark without considering the context, it's hard to tell exactly what he's saying

For instance, when a boy say to his mother, "Mum, I'm hungry!" This sentence is classified as a statement by grammatical standards In this case, though, the youngster want to ask his mother for something to eat It becomes a request in this plan

Both the speakers (S) and the hearers (H) are perplexed by this undivided interaction As a result, speaking actions are classified in a variety of ways J.L Austin classified speech acts into three categories when doing study in this field: locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act

*Locutionary act: Sentences that follow the language's phonological and

grammatical conventions Because this sound does not make sense in Vietnamese, a Vietnamese rendition of "Bonjour madam" will not be considered

a locutionary act

* Illocutionary act: This refers to the goal or communication purpose that

the speech is attempting to attain or achieving It's usually what the speakers hope the listeners will understand “Warn, request, promise ” are common actions

* Perlocutionary act: When a speaker speaks, he aims to communicate his

intention to the listener, which is referred to as perlocutionary act

According to Yule (1996), there is one general classification system that

lists five types of general functions performed by speech acts including: declarations, representatives, expressives, directives, and commissives

Declarations : Declarations are speech acts that have the power to

transform the world In order to properly conduct a declaration, the speaker must have a distinct institutional function in a specific setting

E.g (The Judge to a couple): You are marriaged

Representatives: Representatives are speech acts in which the speaker

expresses whether or not they think something to be true The speaker represents the world as he or she sees it through statements of fact, claims, conclusions, and descriptions

E.g The moon goes round the Earth

Expressives: are speech acts in which the speaker expresses his or her

feelings They are statements of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy, and sadness that represent psychological states

E.g I’m interested in the Bo Gia film because it is so sweet

Directives: are speech acts that the speakers use to get the Hearer to do

something They express what the speaker wants

E.g Sit down, please!

Commissives: are speech acts in which speakers pledge to take a certain

action in the future They convey the speaker's intent

E.g I’ll be back soon

1.2.2.1 Compliment as a speech act

According to Mark Twain "I can live for two months on a good compliment." Compliments have something in common with the sugar in the course of cooking You will feel sweet after you eat the food added sugar, and you will have the same touch if you are complimented Why can compliments show the great influence on people? Compliment is universal in all cultures and languages, and it is an important component of our everyday interactions It also

has a significant impact on people's moral lives Giving a compliment is seen as

a priceless verbal gift Everyone enjoys receiving compliments because it helps them feel good about themselves Not all of them, however, have a clear definition of compliment So, what exactly is a compliment?

A clear example being found to prove is that:

Clara: Where’ve you been? I haven’t seen you around

Peter: We were away We just got back What’s new with you? What have you been up to?

Clara: (Peter reports on neighborhood news in detail) I missed you How are you? It’s so nice to see you Where’d you go?

It is clarify that compliments are expressions of admiration, respect or praise…

or others argue convincingly that “compliment is a speech act which explicitly

or implicitly attributes credit to someone other than the speaker, usually the person addressed, for some “good” ( possession, characteristics, skill, etc ) (Holme)

All of the most theorists agree that praise is the most "interesting" subject of language It is a common language, people use it for many reasons, it is to compliment, encourage, or suggest something in meetings or conversations Its various functions is also reflected in this According to Wolfson, the primary role of praise is to "build or maintain unity among interlocutors," and the other is

to "encourage desired behavior, such as in a classroom setting." In many cases,

it is used to replace other speech acts such as sorry, thank you and more importantly, it has the effect of replacing disparaging words by using "but" or " however," as in the sentence:

Teacher wants to remind student’s bad drawings in your picture, she can say:

“Your layout is good but your color is difficult for me to looking”

Moreover, the importance of compliment cannot be overestimated Because, not every offer of compliments is appropriate in that situation That's why, in order

to give respectable additions, we must first define what should do, what say That means answering when, why, and who being compliment? Many other factors influence this process, including culture, age, gender, gender, and social power

1.2.3 Politeness

Politeness is a social phenomenon of interaction between people, directly related

to an individual's excellent manners and standards of ritual, and should be observed to ensure a social relationship with going well and beneficial Linguistically, Ide (1993, p 7) states that politeness includes the methods and forms of language use necessary for effective and pleasant communication Furthermore, it has been claimed (Ide 1993, p 7) that the awareness and attention of scholars on this issue has led to special works, beginning with Grice, Austin and Searle, which close served as a solid foundation for the birth of politeness theories by Lakoff (1973), Leech (1983), and Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987)

1.3 RESEARCH ON COMPLIMENT RESPONSES

1.3.1 Definitions

Compliments have gotten a lot of attention in the subject of sociolinguistics, and Holmes' (1988, p 446) definition is one of the most often used in the literature:

A compliment is a speech act in which the speaker or the hearer expressly

or implicitly gives credit to someone other than the speaker, generally the person addressed, for some ‘good' (possession, trait, ability, etc.)

A compliment response is a verbal act that follows a complimenting occurrence In order to detect linguistic politeness patterns surrounding complimenting behavior, compliment answers should be examined as well There are several research that have been conducted Many research have been conducted on compliments, compliment reactions, and compliment perceptions

- When talk about to responses to compliments, Pomerantz (1978) was the first to examine compliments responses from a point of view pragmatic, which assert that Americans should avoid: agree with the speaker and self-praise

1.3.1.1 Compliment responses in American English

Actually, it is well-documented fact that be able to accept a compliment with a simple phrase "Thank you" can serve and is considered the most appropriate response in English-speaking cultures (Johnson, 1979, pp 43-44) However, according to Pomerantz (1978), this may not be true in the context of American English Her theory asserts that when a person is asked to respond to a compliment, two opposing rule are at work She states that it is better to avoid conflict in any discussion and that a desirable response should be an accept and agree answer

1.3.1.2 Compliment responses in Vietnamese

Nguyen Quang (1999) published the first cross-cultural comparative research on the communication events of praising and reacting to compliments, titled "Some linguistic variations in complimenting and replying to compliments in American English and Vietnamese." He examines the speech actions of paying and delivering compliments through the lenses of addressing words, directness-indirectness, and modality in that study

Pham (2014) investigates the techniques used by Vietnamese people to respond

to compliments, as well as the impact of compliment recipients' perceptions on their answers She divides compliment responses into three categories in that study: accepting, rejecting and deflecting She finds distinct compliment responses and organizes them on a continuum according to their strength, from strongest to weakest, within these techniques

1.3.2 Syntactic categories

Manes and Wolf-son are the primary researchers on complimenting in American English (Manes 1983; Wolfson 1981, 1983, 1989; Manes and Wolfson 1981, among others) Complimenting, like other well-studied speech acts like re-questing, apologizing, and welcoming, is done through formulaic utterances, according to the authors Compliments in English are limited to a few structures

for giving compliments:

1 Noun Phrase is/looks (really) + Adjective

This structure is commonly used to compliment somebody’s appearance, possession or skills

E.g You look nice Have you lost weight?

2 I (really) + like/love + Noun Phrase

The second structure tends to showcase your feeling and emotion more than

the first one The use of emotional verbs such as “like” and “love” tells others

how fond you are of their appearance, belonging, skills or performance

E.g I like the way you play piano

3 Pronoun + is + (a/an) + (really) + Adjective + Noun Phrase

If you are looking for a way to compliment someone’s appearance or something he/she owns, this is one option for you Remember to choose the proper pronoun to suit the quantity of object

E.g That’s a really nice disk

4 You + Verb + (a/an) + (really) + Adjective + Noun Phrase

This is the ideal framework for praising a person's performance or abilities Employers, workplace bosses, and schoolteachers commonly use this term E.g You made an impressive speech up there! Congratulation!

5 You + Verb + Noun Phrase + (really) + Adverb

This structure can be used in place of structure number 4 above However,

we should pay attention to use adverbs correctly Some commonly used adverbs

in this structure are “well”, “nicely”, “perfectly”, etc

E.g You cooked the beefsteak perfectly!

6 You have + (a/an) + (really) + Adj + NP

When you want to say nice words about something that belongs to a person

or about their appearance, keep in mind that you can always use this structure E.g She has lovely eyes

7 What + (a/an) + Adj + NP!

This familiar expression is very useful in case of complimenting With the use of some positive adjectives, we can easily create compliments that can apply

in all situations

E.g What a great job you have done with this project!

What an amazing song!

E.g Isn’t she lovely!

Isn’t your ring beautiful!

Isn’t tonight memorable!

Due to the fact that in compliments, the adjectives used are usually lovely, beautiful, and good, while the verbs are mostly like and love that could be taken into consideration When refer to interlocutors, compliments are usually given to people of equal status, co-workers, acquaintances, and regardless of casual friends - and not so often to close people like family members

In addition to this, it is undeniable that these writers also uncover a lot of subtleties in Americans' compliment behavior Based on the research provided

by Manes and Wolfson 1981; Wolfson 1989, it is commonly believed that while

compliments on appearance and possessions are freely given, compliments on

ability and accomplishments are limited to situations of unequal status, and that compliments flow from those in higher status to those in lower status, not the other way around, as is commonly assumed The authors argue that the most essential purpose of compliments is to build and strengthen friendship and cooperation, based on their findings (Manes 1983; Her-bert 1990)

1.3.3 Semantic categories of responses to compliments

Semantically, common responses to compliments can be categorised into

accep-tance, mitigation, and rejection with sub-categories within each

1.3.4 English idiom to give someone a compliment

Here are some idioms to express compliments and show kindness to someone who needs a little cheer or wants to show how much you appreciate them:

 Above board - honest & straightforward

At one’s fingertips - complete knowledge

 Argus eyed - good observant

 Bury the hatchet - to make peace

 Bring down the house - receive applause

 Blaze the trail - to start a movement

 Big draw - gathers huge attraction

 Carry the day - to win a victory

 Come off with flying colours - to come out successfully

Carry one’s point - win approval

 Dare devil - fearless

 Fight to the finsih - fight to the end

 Gain ground - to succeed slowly & steadily

 Gird up the loins - to prepare for hard work

 Be a good samaritan - help strangers