The pragmatics of flattery: The strategic use of solidarity-oriented actions

Abstract

Flattery is a social phenomenon that treads a fine line between acceptable and unacceptable social behavior and brings forward the strategic element of language use. Although flattery has been studied in other areas of the social sciences (namely marketing and social psychology), pragmatic literature has not addressed the phenomenon, despite its potential to inform the interpretive process participants engage in when evaluating politeness strategies in interactions. This study aims to understand what flattery is by examining its perception and uses in a specific speech community – native Hebrew speakers in Israel. A meta-pragmatic methodology was used to collect two complementary corpora: solicited reports of flattery events for an interpersonal level analysis, and public flattery events from a large online database for a societal level analysis. Findings indicate how participants judge an action to be flattery, what (verbal) acts count as flattery, and the functions of flattery in interactions. Ultimately, a definition is offered against the backdrop of flattery being perceived as the dark side of sociability.