A Pragmatic Study On Chinese Compliments-An Adaptation Approach

Compliment, as a type of speech act, is frequently applied in social communication. It has been revealed that this speech act involves many social and cultural factors. Previous studies have concentrated on the following aspects: compliment formulas, distribution, gender differences of English varieties and compliment responses. There is little research on compliments in other linguistic-cultural systems, however. The present study attempts to probe into compliments in Chinese context from pragmatic perspective. It is valuable because it will not only contribute to the understanding of the speech act of compliment but will also provide new insights in the study of the Chinese language.The present study, based on Verschueren's Linguistic Adaptation Theory, aims at giving a detailed account of the process of compliments as linguistic choice and as adaptation to the mental world which covers a wide range of aspects of the participant's state of mind, such as personality, emotions, beliefs, wishes, motivations, etc. and the social world which includes social conventions and the traditional Chinese culture.Using the collected data, this study provides an analysis of compliments in Chinese context. From a functional perspective, we hope to find a more scientific explanation of compliments as a result of linguistic choice so that we may come to a better understanding of the reasons why people prefer the way of such expressions to the others. The social functions of Chinese compliments are as follows: establishing relationship, changing pragmatic distance, serving as gratitude and encouragement, protecting face from being frightened, and avoiding or reconciling conflicts.Finally, I will give a brief summary of the paper and point out the issues for future study.