Abstract:Compliment is a type of commonly-used speech act in both American and Chinese daily communication. A certain number of overseas and domestic scholars have studied on compliments and focused on linguistic form, semantic pattern, topic distribution, response strategy, social function and so on. However, most of them collected compliment corpuses without a classification of specific situations. And no one focused on the effect of compliment in parenting. Thus this thesis will collect altogether 200 corpuses from the two comparable TV series: Growing Pains and Home with Kids, and study on Chinese and American compliments used by family members from the cross-cultural perspective.

The thesis aims to find answers for the following questions: 1) What are the similarities and differences of American and Chinese compliments used at home in terms of topic distribution, response strategies and social functions of compliment? 2) How does compliment affect children’s behavior and how to give compliment in a more appropriate way? The result shows that the topics of Chinese compliments are more limited to ability and personality. As for response strategies, both American and Chinese people would like to accept compliment but Chinese are not in the habit of accepting compliment directly, which reveals their modesty. As for social function, American compliments tend to compliment what is truly a fact while Chinese might give insincere compliments to win the favors of each other. The study also demonstrates that the proper compliments serve to develop the good value and positive mindset, improve the parent-child relationship and build a harmonious family atmosphere. Additionally, Chinese parents are expected to compliment more widely, practically, timely and impartially.

Key words:-American and Chinese compliments; compliments study; parenting; response strategy

Contents

摘要

Abstract

1. Introduction-1

1.1 The Significance of the Study-1

1.2 The Background of Research-2

1.3 Research Questions-2

1.4 Research Methodology-3

2. Literature Review-4

2.1 Definitions of Compliment-4

2.2 Speech Act Theory-5

2.1.1 Austin’s Speech Act Theory-5

2.1.2 Searle’s Speech Act Theory-5

2.3 Studies on Compliment Abroad-6

2.4 Studies on Compliment at Home-7

3. Contrastive Study between American Compliments (AC) and Chinese Compliments (CC) Used at Home-10

3.1 Comparison of Topic Distribution between AC and CC-10

3.1.1 The Topic Distribution of AC-10

3.1.1.1 Topics on Appearance-10

3.1.1.2 Topics on Ability and Achievement-11

3.1.1.2 Topics on Personality-12

3.1.2 The Topic Distribution of CC-12

3.1.2.1 Topics on Appearance-12

3.1.2.2 Topics on Ability and Achievement-13

3.1.2.3 Topics on Personality-13

3.1.2.3 Topics on Possession-14

3.1.3 Comparison of Topics between AC and CC-14

3.2 Comparison of Response Strategies between AC and CC-15

3.2.1 Response Strategies of AC-16

3.2.1.1 Agreement-16

3.2.1.2 Disagreement-16

3.2.1.2 Disagreement-agreement-17

3.2.2 Response Strategies of CC-17

3.2.2.1 Agreement-17

3.2.2.2 Disagreement-18

3.2.3 Comparison of Response Strategies between AC and CC-18

3.3 Comparison of Social Functions between AC and CC-19

3.3.1 Social Functions of AC-20

3.3.2 Social Functions of CC-21

3.3.3 Comparison of Social Functions between AC and CC-23

4. Conclusion-24

4.1 The Effects of Compliment on Children-24

4.2 The Implementation of Compliment between Parents and Children-25

References-28

Appendix1 American Compliments Collected From Growing Pains-29

Appendix2 Chinese Compliments Collected From Home with Kids-38