Compliments and compliment responses in Romanian conversational discourse

Abstract

The present paper is a corpus-based analysis of compliments and compliment responses in naturally occurring talk-in-interaction in Romanian. The analysis is carried out within a theoretical framework that blends conversation analysis and the theories of politeness proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987) and Leech (1983, 2013). Compliments and compliment responses are viewed as social actions which are co-produced and negotiated among participants in the talk exchange. The aim of the study is to identify the types of possible compliment responses allowed by a mechanism that works under two opposing constraints: express agreement with addressee (see Brown and Levinson’s positive politeness strategies) or give symbolic gifts to addressee, such as praise (see Brown and Levinson’s positive politeness strategies), on the one hand, and minimize praise to self (see Leech’s maxim of modesty), on the other. The compliment sequence is considered within the extended interactional environment, with a view to highlighting the interconnectedness of sequential organization, preferred seconds and communicative function. The article also addresses the use and function of various particles occurring in compliments and compliment responses and their role in how speaker alignments and misalignments are achieved.

Keywords

• compliment responses
• positive politeness
• negative politeness
• maxim of modesty
• speech acts
• sequential organization