Complimenting behaviour: A cross‐cultural investigation

Abstract

Complimenting and responding to compliments were investigated in three language varieties, British English, Finnish and the interlanguage of Finnish learners of English. Twenty British and thirty Finnish females were used as subjects. Their productions in six different roleplay situations formed the data. These were analysed in terms of the syntactic structure and length of compliments, and the kind of strategy employed in compliment responses. It was found that complimenting is formulaic in English and Finnish although more syntactic variation is present in Finnish. Compliments in Finnish were longer than in English, as measured in the number of propositional acts, and this is seen to reflect the infrequent occurrence of compliments in Finnish. Finnish learners of English demonstrated appropriate (formulaic) complimenting behaviour in English although some transfer from the first language was noted, particularly in the frequent use of hearer‐oriented compliment forms. Compliments are accepted more often in British English than in Finnish. This may be a reflection of the different social structures of the two cultures, Finnish culture allowing the negotiation of solidarity to a larger extent.