A Contrast Study Of Compliment Responses In Chinese And American Talk Shows From The Perspective Of Sociolinguistics

Compliment can relieve the contradiction between the two sides of communication,and improve the interpersonal relationship.It has always been a hot issue in sociolinguistics and pragmatics.Moreover,compliment response,as the adjacent pair of compliment has increasingly attracted scholars' attention in recent years.Based on the theory of sociolinguistics,this thesis studies the similarities and differences of compliment responses in Chinese and American talk shows according to Holmes'categories on compliment responses.Ellen Show and A Date with Lu Yu are used as data sources,from which 14 guests are selected respectively.This thesis uses qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze collected data to explore the types of compliment response strategies and the similarities and differences of compliment responses in Chinese and American talk shows.The social and cultural factors that cause the similarities and differences are discussed,too.The research shows that:1)At the macro level,both of the Chinese and the American respond to the compliments of others in the order of Accept,Deflect,and Reject.However,American celebrities use more Accept strategy and less Evade strategy than Chinese celebrities.2)At the micro level,both of the Chinese celebrities and the American celebrities like to use the Appreciation or agreement token,and do not like to use Questioning accuracy and Challenge sincerity.3)In terms of the combination strategies,Chinese celebrities have more combination strategies than American counterparts.4)Social and cultural factors are the main reasons for the similarities and differences of compliment responses in Chinese and American talk shows.With the deepening of reform and opening-up,the cultures rooting in China and America are interrelated and promote each other which lead to similarities in strategy selection.Although culture itself has become more diverse,traditional cultural factors still influence the use of compliment responses.Therefore,the Chinese and the American have great differences in the use of strategyThe differences between the Chinese and the American in the use of compliment response are not conducive to the smooth progress of communication and may even lead to communication failure.Therefore,this research owns both theoretical and practical value,which contributes new research ideas and enriches the research results in the field of sociolinguistics.Meanwhile,it is of great significance for the smooth progress of intercultural communication and foreign language teaching.