Speech Tactics of Compliments and Compliment Responses in Gender Perspective

Abstract

The present research featured the speech tactics of compliment and response to compliments in young interlocutors. The speech tactics of compliment usually depend on the following factors: communicative goal, communicative situation, speaker’s attitude, gender roles, cultural impact, etc. Depending on the communicative situation, the most frequent speech tactics were: to raise the mood of the recipient, to support them, to show one’s approval, or just because it was appropriate. Young female respondents were able to mention much more situations when they usually make compliments than male respondents. Depending on the communicative objective, young women much more often made compliments about one’s appearance, something they liked, or one’s character. The impact of Russian culture seems to be in the following opinion voiced by the respondents: compliments must be genuine, so they usually give compliments only to family and friends. There are different speech tactics of compliment responses: acceptance, acceptance with a comment / joke / reciprocal compliment, self-glorification, ignoring, etc. In an official situation where the interlocutors had equal status, the young men chose to answer with a joke / comment, to ignore the compliment, or used the tactic of self-glorification. The female respondents used such speech tactics as acceptance, acceptance with a comment, a reciprocal compliment, or a joke. While talking to male strangers in an official situation, the young men used the tactic of acceptance with a comment or ignored the compliment, while the young women tended to accept the compliment, answer with a joke, or use self-glorification tactic. When the young men were talking to a woman-stranger, they ignored the compliment, whereas the young women accepted it, answered with a joke, used selfglorification, or returned the compliment. In an informal situation, the young men ignored the compliment, demonstrated self-glorification, accepted the comment, or answered with a joke; the young women preferred acceptance with or without a comment or a joke, self-glorification, or a reciprocal compliment.