A Study Of The Compliments In Ode To Joy From The Perspective Of Rapport Management

Compliment is a common speech act in interpersonal communication,and the use of compliments helps people to create and maintain rapport with each other.The research perspectives of compliments are diverse,including sociology,cross-culture,pragmatics and so on.From the perspective of pragmatics,scholars mainly study compliments in terms of politeness and face.However,the study of compliments from the angle of interpersonal relationships has not received corresponding attention.Therefore,this thesis attempts to analyze the use of compliments from the perspective of rapport management.The thesis chooses the first season of the modern urban TV series Ode to joy as data and adopts the method of qualitative analysis to study compliments within the theoretical framework of Spencer-Oatey’s Rapport Management Theory,including the following three research questions:(1)What are the realizations of compliments in Ode to joy?(2)What are the factors influencing the use of compliments?(3)What are the interpersonal effects of compliments?Firstly,the study finds that the realizations of compliments in the data can be summarized into seven types: direct statement,comparison,inquiry,quotation,assumption,generic reference and expression of feelings.Secondly,the study finds that rapport enhancement orientation and rapport maintenance orientation are the main factors influencing the use of compliments.In addition to rapport orientations,the use of compliments is also influenced by contextual variables and pragmatic conventions.Contextual variables include power relations between participants and cost-benefit considerations of message content.The complimenter is usually in a lower power relation than the complimentee,and compliments often occur when the message content is costly to the hearer and beneficial to the speaker.The pragmatic conventions include three maxims of the Politeness Principle: the Approbation Maxim,the Agreement Maxim and the Sympathy Maxim.Influenced by these factors,communicators choose compliments in conversation to create or maintain interpersonal harmony.Finally,the thesis explores the effects of compliments on interpersonal relationships.The study finds that the effects of compliments on interpersonal relationships are mainly reflected in the positive aspects,enhancing the hearer’s quality face and identity face,and upholding the hearer’s equity rights and association rights.In addition,the effects of some compliments on interpersonal relationships are reflected in the negative aspects,threatening the hearer’s identity face and infringing the hearer’s equity rights.The negative effects of compliments in the data do not involve the concepts of quality face and association rights.From the perspective of interpersonal pragmatics,this thesis investigates compliments within the framework of Rapport Management Theory,which is helpful to deepen people’s understanding of compliments to some extent and widen the research perspectives on compliments.