A study on english responses to compliments with reference to the vietnamese equivalents

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES

BA THESIS
A STUDY ON ENGLISH RESPONSES TO
COMPLIMENTS WITH REFERENCE TO THE
VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
CÁCH ĐÁP LẠI NHỮNG LỜI KHEN NGỢI TRONG
TIẾNG ANH CÓ THAM CHIẾU ĐẾN NGHĨA TƯƠNG
ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT

Student:

TRAN THI THANH TAM

Student code:

621209

Major:

ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Supervisor:

HA THI LAN, MA

Hanoi – 2021

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES

BA THESIS
A STUDY ON ENGLISH RESPONSES TO
COMPLIMENTS WITH REFERENCE TO THE
VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
CÁCH ĐÁP LẠI NHỮNG LỜI KHEN NGỢI TRONG
TIẾNG ANH CÓ THAM CHIẾU ĐẾN NGHĨA TƯƠNG
ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT

Student:

TRAN THI THANH TAM

Student code:

621209

Major:

ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Supervisor:

HA THI LAN, MA

Hanoi – 2021

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled “a study on English responses to compliments with reference to the
Vietnamese equivalents” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of Bachelor in English Language. Except where the reference is
indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement
in the text of the thesis.

Hanoi, 2021

Tran Thi Thanh Tam

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)
Date: ……………………

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART ONE : INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 1
1.1. RATIONALE ................................................................................................. 1
1.2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY .............................................. 3
1.3. RESEARCH QUESTION .............................................................................. 3
1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY .............................................................................. 3
1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ............................................................... 4
1.6. DESIGN OF THE STUDY ............................................................................ 4

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT ....................................................................... 5
Chapter 1. LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of compliment ………………………………………………….......5
1.1. REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME & ABROAD)

1.1.2. Related research 1 ....................................................................................... 6
1.1.2. Related research 2 ....................................................................................... 8
1.2. REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ................................... 9
1.2.1 Pragmatics .................................................................................................... 9
1.2.2. Speech acts ................................................................................................ 10
1.2.3. Politeness ................................................................................................... 16
1.3. RESEARCH ON COMPLIMENT RESPONSES................................... 16
1.3.1. Definitions ................................................................................................. 16
1.3.2. Syntactic categories ................................................................................... 17
1.3.3. Semantic categories of responses to compliments .................................... 20
1.3.4. English idiom to give someone a compliment .......................................... 20
1.4. SUMMARY................................................................................................ 23
Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................ 24
2.1. RESEARCH GOVERNING PRINCIPLES ............................................ 24
2.1.1. Research questions .................................................................................... 24
2.1.2. Research hypothesis .................................................................................. 24
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2.1.3. Research types ........................................................................................... 24
2.1.4. Research approaches ................................................................................. 25
2.1.5. Principles for data collection and data analysis ........................................ 25
2.2. RESEARCH METHODS .......................................................................... 27
2.3. RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE STUDY .............................. 27
2.4. SUMMARY................................................................................................. 27

PART THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .......................................... 29
3.1. A STUDY OF GIVING AND RESPONDING TO COMPLIMENTS IN
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS ....................................... 29
3.1. 1. Topics of compliment in English ............................................................. 29
3.1.2. Vietnamese findings .................................................................................. 31
3.2. CATEGORIES OF COMPLIMENT RESPONSES............................... 32
3.3. Differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese
compliment responding. ................................................................................... 40
3.3.1.

Similarities

between

English

and

Vietnamese

compliment

responding………………………………………………………………….......40
3.3.2. Differences between English and Vietnamese compliment responding....40
Chapter 3: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR GIVING AND RESPONDING
TO

COMPLIMENTS

IN

ENGLISH

AND

VIETNAMESE

EQUIVALENTS. ............................................................................................... 42
3.1 SOME SUGGESTIONS ............................................................................... 42
3.2. SUGGESTED TEACHING APPLICATION .............................................. 44
3.3. SUMMARY……………………………………………………………….45
Part FOUR. CONCLUSION ............................................................................ 46
1. Summary of the finding ................................................................................ 46
2. Implications for the English language learning and teaching .................. 46
2.1. Implications for learners .............................................................................. 46

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2.2 . Implications for teachers ............................................................................. 46
3. Limitations of the study ................................................................................ 47
4. Suggestions for futher research ................................................................... 47
REFERENCES

iv


ABSTRACT
The commending other or being for the most part applauded by others and
reacting to praises is one of the particularly basic very social practices in

individuals lives yet has its really own phonetic and very social attributes of
every very local area and every fairly general public, or so they thought.
From the complimenter's side, it's who praises, when to adulate toward the
start, what to acclaim and how to applaud, from the individual's side, it's the
reaction disposition and how to for the most part react to the commendation as
for all intents and purposes needs be with explicit correspondence articles and
circumstances in a big way. All these collaborations are communicated for the
most part by language comprising of words and non-verbal components (like
motions), which basically is quite significant. From an actually practical
perspective, with the language behavior (speech acts), praise behavior belongs to
the category of behavior (behabitives - 1 - comportementaux), actually contrary
to popular belief. Toward this path, the investigation of essentially praises
should particularly have the option to show articulations, or so they thought.
expressions of applause conduct and getting basically praises (reaction to
praises) in various correspondence settings.
From a sociolinguistic viewpoint, tribute conduct generally is concentrated
by the correspondence collaboration relationship with dissimilar investigation.
social layers, which definitely is quite significant. Toward this path, as a variety,
the applause and gathering of praises of the praiser and the beneficiary basically
are considered affected by friendly classes like age, sex, occupation, specifically
pay status, education.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATION
N: Noun
A: Adjective
Adv: Adverb
E.g: For example

S: Speakers
H: Hearers
CRs: Compliment Responses

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PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1.

RATIONALE

Moving towards the 21st century, a large number of people are drawing attention
to communicate cross-cultural boundaries have experienced communication
breakdowns with people from different first language backgrounds. In fact, there
are some who hold firmly to their belief that happens to anyone who wants to
give compliments on a person from another country. The main purpose of this
thesis is to raise the awareness of culture gap. It is done, focused on the
comparison of the ways of giving compliments and responding to compliments
between the English and the Vietnamese. Carrying out a contrastive study on
verbal responses to compliments in English and Vietnamese, I would like to
obtain some insights that highlight both the similarities and differences of types
in English and Vietnamese strategies used to reply compliments by English and
Vietnamese people.
In the age of global communication, it is important and necessary to
communicate effectively. This requires language learners not only the
knowledge of linguistic structure of the target language but also ability to use it
appropriately in different situations, depending on factors such as settings,
context and relationships between speakers (Washburn, 2001). Therefore, I
conducted the thematic research with the following content: “A study on

English responses to compliments with reference to the Vietnamese
equivalents”. In the process of teaching and learning English, the pragmatic and
discourse use of responses to compliments have not been paid much attention to.
As a result, learners with a good knowledge of language may fail in his real
communication because of misunderstanding and then loss of confidence in
communicating. It is necessary that an investigation into this field should be
carried out to contribute to a better process of teaching and learning English.
The study also attempts to suggest some useful implications in order to help

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language learners improve their language skill to gain their purpose of social
communication as well as to make the process of teaching and learning foreign
language better.
There are various research on sorts of speech acts, such as making a request,
asking for permission, apologizing, and so on, by famous theorists to enhance
learners' understanding of this issue, but few of them focus on the speech act of
praise. This is also a fascinating topic that piques the author's interest since it
requires a high level of pragmatic knowledge on the part of the speaker and, as a
result, is usually jam-packed with information about language learners' cultural
orientation. (In many languages, responding to compliments requires the
language user to walk a narrow line between appearing boastful and ungrateful,
depending on how he or she answers).
On the one hand, each country has its own culture and behavior. Furthermore,
there is no doubt that to be more successful in daily communication for English
learners, the most important thing is to equip themselves with knowledge of the
target language culture as well as practical knowledge and discourse. In addition
to this, process of communication has also the function of the reactions takes
place naturally; In fact, they serve more functions than at first glance, and

responding to compliments is no exception. A clear example being found to
prove is that:
A: How lovely the house is!
B: Thank you.
That is really a nice compliment, thank you!
You must be kidding!
Do you really think that? Really?
On the other hand, there are evidences for other people to the same compliment
can be responded to in many ways by the recipient with different purposes.
Equally important, there is no denying that responses can bring conversations

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closer, establish and maintain conversations, develop interpersonal relationships
and understanding between interlocutors, or disrupt interactions.
1.2.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1.2.1. Aims:
It is a well-documented fact that syntactic and pragmatic features of verbal
responses to compliments in their contrast in English and Vietnamese, this study
aims to describe and analyze different types of compliment responses in English
and Vietnamese in order to improve understanding and effective use of verbal
responses to compliments in teaching and learning English as a foreign
language.
1.2.2. Objectives:
- Define, analyze, explain the syntactic and pragmatic features of compliment
responses in English and Vietnamese languages and find out the similarities and

differences of these features in the two languages.
- Present suggestions to help teachers and learners of English teach and learn
English compliment responses in an effective way.
1.3. RESEARCH QUESTION
The study attempts to answer the following questions:
+ What are syntactic and pragmatic features of compliment responses in
English and Vietnamese?
+ What are similarities and differences in the syntactic and pragmatic
features of compliment responses in English and Vietnamese?
+ What suggestions are made to help teachers and learners of English teach
and learn English compliment responses in an effective way?
1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
All things considered this research will focus on vocal responses to compliments
rather than nonverbal communication within the limits of the thesis.

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Furthermore, employment, sex, social statuses, geographic locations, and other
social factors are considered in this thesis.
1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The goal of the study is to identify the similarities and differences in the
syntactic and pragmatic components of replies complement in English and
Vietnamese, with the hope of helping English learners in effectively using the
language in a range of situations.
The findings of the study might be beneficial in recommending some positive
implications for improved compliment responses in teaching and learning.
Following the aims, objectives and the scope of performing a study on English
and Vietnamese responses to compliments in terms of syntactic and semantic
features above.

1.6. DESIGN OF THE STUDY
This thesis includes three main parts and three chapters:
Part 1:

Introduction

Part 2:

Development

Part 3:

Conclusion

Chapter 1: Literature review which generally analyze the theoretical background
of the study as well as the definition of the concept of compliment responses.
Chapter 2: Methodology of the study which are discussed to explain.
Chapter 3: Findings and discussion where I figure out the strategy of responding
to compliments
Finally, references are respectably noted in the end of the study.

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PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1. LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of compliment
This section will shed light into the definitions of compliment by main
English dictionaries to offer an understanding about compliment responses.
The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2008) defines a

compliment as “a remark that expresses approval, admiration or respect” and the
Merriam Webster dictionary describes it as "an expression of esteem, respect,
affection, or admiration; especially: an admiring remark”. These definitions all
have positive connotations based on the observer's observations in
conversations.
Other English dictionaries provide a more elaborate understanding of a
compliment. The Collins COBUILD English dictionary for advanced learners
(2001) describes a compliment as “a polite remark that you say to someone to
show that you like their appearance, appreciate their qualities, or approve of
what they have done,” and can be used “when you want to express thanks, good
wishes, or respect to someone in a formal way.” It also explains, “if you
consider something that a person says or does as a compliment, it convinces you
of your own good qualities, and that the person appreciates you.” Adding
another meaning to “an expression of praise, commendation, or admiration”, the
Macquarie encyclopedic dictionary (2010) defines a compliment as “a formal
act or expression of civility, respect, or regard.” From the above sets of
definitions, it is implied that a compliment in English-speaking cultures can be
performed in formal and informal settings, where complimenters use
compliments to show their politeness, admiration, appreciation and approval of
appearance, qualities and skills of complimenters. The complimentee should
also be convinced of their good qualities and the appreciation as expressed by
the complimenter.

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A compliment is one form of speech acts and it can be defined as “an utterance
containing a positive evaluation by the speaker to the addressee” (Liu,1997),
which is positively valued by the speaker and the hearer. So, through
compliments, people can build up solidarity by providing positive evaluation,

appreciation for good deeds, praise for achievement, or worsen relationship by
intentionally or unintentional abusing compliments.
According to Wolfson (1986), two-thirds of English compliments use the
adjectives “nice, good, beautiful, pretty, great”, and 90% make use of just two
verbs “like and love” (p.116). The lack of creativity in the form and content of
English compliments is related to their function in discourse.
Herbert (1986) demonstrates that compliments are used to “negotiate solidarity
with the addressee” (p.76). Their aim is to make the addressee feel good and
their formulaic nature minimizes the chance that they will be misinterpreted by
the addressee.
1.1.

REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME & ABROAD)

1.1.2. Related research 1
There are several studies that are relevant to the research we will conduct.
Compliments are classed as "behabitives" by Austin (1962) in his book "How to
do things with words". Compliments is a "subcategory of congratulations, along
with condolences and felicitations," according to Bach and Harnish [30, p. 52].
Reading How to Do Things with Words starts off with a feeling of
frustration: Austin suggests a distinction and takes it back; then, he makes a new
triple distinction; which he immediately, takes back again; and right after that,
he implies it yet again, but this time he just focuses on the illocutionary act for
the most part of the rest of his lectures. The performative force gives an
utterance its meaning. Austin now outlines three main factors for the happy
functioning of the performative: (a’) speaker’s intentions when uttering the
sentence (b’) the following of certain conventions depending on the context, and

6

(c’) speaker’s authority. For instance, if I say ‘I do’, I will manage to get married
only if I am in an actual wedding ceremony and I am the groom or the bride.
Teacher: “this is excellent Jennie. You’ve really done a nice job”.
Compliments, according to Wierzbicka, are typically designed to make
people feel good and are given to keep "good interpersonal relationships" [63, p.
87].
They function as "social lubricants," according to Wolfson [65, p. 89].
Kerbat-definition Orecchioni's of complementing as a verbal gift [37, p. 219] is
another important description, emphasizing the give-and-take nature of
complimenting. Moreover, compliments are speech acts that are primarily aimed
at maintaining, improving or supporting the addressee’s face.
Pomerantz (1978) was the first to investigate how people respond to
compliments in American English. She gave many instances of compliments
and compliments responses, but she did not say how many each type of answer
she got.
In addition to, Herbert (1986) conducted a quantitative study of compliment
responses in American English. She divided compliment responses into three
categories: agreement, non-agreement, and Other Interpretation.
In New Zealand, Holmes (1988) studied compliments and compliment
responses. She studied the subjects that compliments alluded to statistically, as
well as the frequency with which men and women gave and received praises.
Another area of investigation for these researchers is the link between
gender and praise and compliment responses behavior. Women pay and get
more praises than men, according to Manes and Wolfson, and women's answers
to compliments are more directed toward social peace than men's. Herbert
(1990) focuses on the disparities in compliments and compliment responses
between men and women. From his corpus of 1062 compliment occurrences, he
discovers that men's compliments are twice as likely to be accepted as women's,

7


that women are twice as likely to receive praises as men, and that compliments
offered by males are considerably more likely to be accepted compliments as
men, that compliments given by men are far more likely to be met with
agreement – particularly by a female responder – and, among all interactional
pairs (men-to-men, men-to-women, women-to-women, and women-to-men),
men- to-men compliments are the most likely to be met with no
acknowledgement (Herbert 1990: 213, Table 3)
1.1.2. Related research 2
On the one hand, a study of complimenting speech act in Australian English
and Vietnamese was done by Suu (1990). The findings showed that similar
syntactic patterns of complıments were used in English and Vietnamese, but the
topics of compliments were different from one language to the other.
On the other hand, Thai Thi Ngoc Lien (1993) carried out the research
"Complimenting in English and Vietnamese". This research investigates how
compliments are expressed in English and Vietnamese, and at the same time
examines the influence of students “mother tongue” and culture on the target
language speech act performance. Its aim is to provide Vietnamese learners of
English with sociolinguistic information which will enable them to compliment
in the target language.
In “A Vietnamese-English Cross-Cultural Study of Positive Politeness and
Negative Politeness in Complimenting” [43], Le Phuong Binh (2008)
emphasizes the usage of Positive Politeness and Negative Politeness techniques
in complimenting by both English and Vietnamese native speakers.
The most famous in-depth research was carried out by Nguyen Van Quang
(1999) under the title "Some Cross Cultural Differences in Vietnamese and
American Ways of Complimenting and Responding to Compliments". The
research investigated some major differences in giving and responding to

compliments in intercultural Vietnamese-American communication with the

8


main focus on compliment topics, responding strategies, addressing forms,
directness vs. indirectness, and modality.
1.2. REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.2.1 Pragmatics
One of the most important fields of linguistics is pragmatics. According to
George Yule (1997: 3) defines pragmatics as the study of:
- Speaker meaning
- How much more is communicated than is expressed
- A measure of relative distance.
- Interactions between linguistic forms and the people who use it.
It is difficult to give a correct definition for the question: What is
pragmatics? We only know that it refers to the language in use. And language in
use has connection with the term: “communication”, which is stated:
“Communication is, rather, the successful interpretation by an addressee of a
speaker’s intent in performing a linguistics act” (Georgia M. Green, Natural
Language Understanding, p.1). Furthermore, “a linguistic act” is governed by a
set of laws or standards that are appropriate for various civilizations.
Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics that studies how individuals use
language and what they say in different situations (Levinson 1983, p. 9). It
investigates the meaning of spoken words not just from the speaker's
perspective, but also from the listener's (Yule 1996, p. 3; Stadler 2013, p. 2).
Furthermore, pragmatics seeks to reveal the meaning of an utterance on three
levels: the speaker's intentions, what the speaker has actually said, and the
hearer's interpretation of what he or she has heard.
As a result of this interaction, various cultures have diverse approaches to

language. How does pragmatics differ by culture, though? And how will
students be able to identify this diversity? When the word "speech act" is used,
such questions will be easier to answer, because talking to pragmatics might

9


sometimes imply talking to speech actions. Therefore, we'll move on to
discussing speech acts.
1.2.2. Speech acts
The notion of a speech acts, proposed by Austin (1962, 1970, 1996) and
later expanded by a number of linguists and philosophers of language, is one of
the most significant and relevant concepts in the philosophy of language and
linguistics, notably in pragmatics (Searle, 1969, 1976, 1979; Bach & Harnish,
1979).
In fact, there are some who hold firmly to their belief that speech acts is
considered culturally specific and varies from culture to culture (Baicchi, 2009;
Huang, 2010). Moreover, in many cultures and language groups, according to
Baicchi (2009, p. 212), speech acts differ in the extent to which they
communicate.
Compliments occur as speech actions within the category of behabitives,
according to Austin's Speech Act Theory (1962). (1962, p. 159). When it comes
to praise answers, Searle (1979, p. 15) places the word "thank" in the category of
expressives and explains why each compliment response should be classified as
an expressive differently. A compliment and its response creates a complicated
speech situation, a binary speech act that has gotten a lot of attention in
pragmatics, especially from the standpoint of cross-cultural communication.
Since the introduction of the speech acts theory, individuals have attempted
to think in new ways. It is often said that a large number of people sole purpose
of a "statement" was to "describe" some state of affairs or to "claim" certain

facts, this had to be done honestly. or lying (JL Austin, How to Do It With
Words, p. 1). Actually, there are certain statements that we cannot tell if they are
"true" or "false".
In daily life, people use language to communicate with each other, and this
is the way of "acting with words" (doing things with words) that Austin (1962)

10


to update, they talk, exchange information or make a comment, and the words
follow one after another. Usually the turns appear in pairs. called adjacent pairs
including 2 utterances such as greeting - greeting, inviting - accepting,
compliment - disapproval/denial, compliment - approve/accept etc…
Situation 1:
A: A, anh!
B: Em! (T.S. Hà Cẩm Tâm; Vũ Minh Huyền trong CÁCH CHÀO HỎI CỦA
NGƯỜI VIỆT VÀ NGƯỜI MỸ: Những nét Tương đồng và dị biệt)
Situation 2:
A: It’s the loveliest song I ever heard. (A: Nó là bài hát đáng yêu nhất mà tôi
từng nghe)
B: Well, thank you (Pomerantz, 1978, p. 85)
Or in Vietnam, we often ask this kind of question:
E.g. “ Cậu đang làm gì thế ?” (What are you doing?)
Although most Vietnamese people are not interested in knowing where his
buddy is going, he simply asks in order to strengthen his relationship with the
listener by demonstrating his concern through such a question. As a result, his
inquiry is simply accepted, and it is part of the Vietnamese welcome ritual.
Such types of examples have aided theorists in providing a full description
of speech actions. J.Austin was the first to introduce the concept of speech
actions, he stated that:

In general, speech acts are acts of communication. To communicate is to
express a certain attitude, and the type of speech act being performed
corresponds to the type of attitude being expressed. For example, a statement
expresses a belief, a request expresses a desire, and an apology expresses
regret. As an act of communication, a speech act succeeds if the audience
identifies, in accordance with the speaker's intention, the attitude being
expressed.

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When the concept of speech acts was introduced, we all understood that it
is the activities that are done through speech or through the actions that occur
when someone says anything. There is no denying that actions specifically
named like apology, praise, invitation, request, promise or complaint... in
English.
Speech acts plays the important role in real-life. To put it another way, it's
the language that's being used. As a result, it is obvious that there is no single
phrase – single function connection. If we simply look at the speaker's remark
without considering the context, it's hard to tell exactly what he's saying.
For instance, when a boy say to his mother, "Mum, I'm hungry!" This
sentence is classified as a statement by grammatical standards. In this case,
though, the youngster want to ask his mother for something to eat. It becomes a
request in this plan.
Both the speakers (S) and the hearers (H) are perplexed by this undivided
interaction. As a result, speaking actions are classified in a variety of ways. J.L.
Austin classified speech acts into three categories when doing study in this field:
locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act.
*Locutionary act: Sentences that follow the language's phonological and
grammatical conventions. Because this sound does not make sense in

Vietnamese, a Vietnamese rendition of "Bonjour madam" will not be considered
a locutionary act.
* Illocutionary act: This refers to the goal or communication purpose that
the speech is attempting to attain or achieving. It's usually what the speakers
hope the listeners will understand. “Warn, request, promise...” are common
actions.
* Perlocutionary act: When a speaker speaks, he aims to communicate his
intention to the listener, which is referred to as perlocutionary act.
According to Yule (1996), there is one general classification system that

12


lists five types of general functions performed by speech acts including:
declarations, representatives, expressives, directives, and commissives
Declarations : Declarations are speech acts that have the power to
transform the world. In order to properly conduct a declaration, the speaker must
have a distinct institutional function in a specific setting.
E.g. (The Judge to a couple): You are marriaged
Representatives: Representatives are speech acts in which the speaker
expresses whether or not they think something to be true. The speaker represents
the world as he or she sees it through statements of fact, claims, conclusions,
and descriptions.
E.g. The moon goes round the Earth
Expressives: are speech acts in which the speaker expresses his or her
feelings. They are statements of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy, and sadness
that represent psychological states.
E.g. I’m interested in the Bo Gia film because it is so sweet
Directives: are speech acts that the speakers use to get the Hearer to do
something. They express what the speaker wants

E.g. Sit down, please!
Commissives: are speech acts in which speakers pledge to take a certain
action in the future. They convey the speaker's intent.
E.g. I’ll be back soon
1.2.2.1. Compliment as a speech act
According to Mark Twain "I can live for two months on a good compliment."
Compliments have something in common with the sugar in the course of
cooking. You will feel sweet after you eat the food added sugar, and you will
have the same touch if you are complimented. Why can compliments show the
great influence on people? Compliment is universal in all cultures and
languages, and it is an important component of our everyday interactions. It also

13


has a significant impact on people's moral lives. Giving a compliment is seen as
a priceless verbal gift. Everyone enjoys receiving compliments because it helps
them feel good about themselves. Not all of them, however, have a clear
definition of compliment. So, what exactly is a compliment?
A clear example being found to prove is that:
Clara: Where’ve you been? I haven’t seen you around.
Peter: We were away. We just got back. What’s new with you? What
have you been up to?
Clara: (Peter reports on neighborhood news in detail) I missed you. How
are you? It’s so nice to see you. Where’d you go?
It is clarify that compliments are expressions of admiration, respect or praise…
or others argue convincingly that “compliment is a speech act which explicitly
or implicitly attributes credit to someone other than the speaker, usually the
person addressed, for some “good” ( possession, characteristics, skill, etc..)
(Holme)

All of the most theorists agree that praise is the most "interesting" subject of
language. It is a common language, people use it for many reasons, it is to
compliment, encourage, or suggest something in meetings or conversations.... Its
various functions. is also reflected in this. According to Wolfson, the primary
role of praise is to "build or maintain unity among interlocutors," and the other is
to "encourage desired behavior, such as in a classroom setting." In many cases,
it is used to replace other speech acts such as sorry, thank you and more
importantly, it has the effect of replacing disparaging words by using "but" or "
however," as in the sentence:

Teacher wants to remind student’s bad drawings in your picture, she can say:

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“Your layout is good but your color is difficult for me to looking”
Moreover, the importance of compliment cannot be overestimated. Because, not
every offer of compliments is appropriate in that situation. That's why, in order
to give respectable additions, we must first define what should do, what say.
That means answering when, why, and who being compliment? Many other
factors influence this process, including culture, age, gender, gender, and social
power.

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1.2.3. Politeness
Politeness is a social phenomenon of interaction between people, directly related
to an individual's excellent manners and standards of ritual, and should be
observed to ensure a social relationship with going well and beneficial.

Linguistically, Ide (1993, p. 7) states that politeness includes the methods and
forms of language use necessary for effective and pleasant communication.
Furthermore, it has been claimed (Ide 1993, p. 7) that the awareness and
attention of scholars on this issue has led to special works, beginning with Grice,
Austin and Searle, which close served as a solid foundation for the birth of
politeness theories. by Lakoff (1973), Leech (1983), and Brown and Levinson
(1978, 1987).
1.3. RESEARCH ON COMPLIMENT RESPONSES
1.3.1. Definitions
Compliments have gotten a lot of attention in the subject of
sociolinguistics, and Holmes' (1988, p. 446) definition is one of the most often
used in the literature:
A compliment is a speech act in which the speaker or the hearer expressly
or implicitly gives credit to someone other than the speaker, generally the person
addressed, for some ‘good' (possession, trait, ability, etc.).
A compliment response is a verbal act that follows a complimenting
occurrence. In order to detect linguistic politeness patterns surrounding
complimenting behavior, compliment answers should be examined as well.
There are several research that have been conducted. Many research have been
conducted on compliments, compliment reactions, and compliment perceptions.
- When talk about to responses to compliments, Pomerantz (1978) was the
first to examine compliments responses from a point of view pragmatic, which
assert that Americans should avoid: agree with the speaker and self-praise.

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1.3.1.1. Compliment responses in American English
Actually, it is well-documented fact that be able to accept a compliment with a
simple phrase "Thank you" can serve and is considered the most appropriate

response in English-speaking cultures (Johnson, 1979, pp. 43-44). However,
according to Pomerantz (1978), this may not be true in the context of American
English. Her theory asserts that when a person is asked to respond to a
compliment, two opposing rule are at work. She states that it is better to avoid
conflict in any discussion and that a desirable response should be an accept and
agree answer.
1.3.1.2. Compliment responses in Vietnamese
Nguyen Quang (1999) published the first cross-cultural comparative research on
the communication events of praising and reacting to compliments, titled "Some
linguistic variations in complimenting and replying to compliments in American
English and Vietnamese." He examines the speech actions of paying and
delivering compliments through the lenses of addressing words, directnessindirectness, and modality in that study.
Pham (2014) investigates the techniques used by Vietnamese people to respond
to compliments, as well as the impact of compliment recipients' perceptions on
their answers. She divides compliment responses into three categories in that
study: accepting, rejecting and deflecting. She finds distinct compliment
responses and organizes them on a continuum according to their strength, from
strongest to weakest, within these techniques.
1.3.2. Syntactic categories
Manes and Wolf-son are the primary researchers on complimenting in American
English (Manes 1983; Wolfson 1981, 1983, 1989; Manes and Wolfson 1981,
among others). Complimenting, like other well-studied speech acts like requesting, apologizing, and welcoming, is done through formulaic utterances,
according to the authors. Compliments in English are limited to a few structures

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