Compliment response in Russian and Chinese speech behavior

Compliment response is one of the most studied speech strategies in modern pragmatics research. Early work on the speech behavior of the Chinese found that Chinese speakers in most cases reject the compliment. Researchers believe that this is due to the norm of modesty and respect for other people, as well as self-deprecation. Most researchers of Russian speech behavior note that in Russian communicative behavior a compliment often causes a feeling of self-consciousness, which can be explained by the modesty of Russian people, and entails either a negative reaction or an absence of any reaction whatsoever. The last years of work on the study of the speech behavior do not lose their relevance, especially since they give different results. However, there has not been a comparative study of Russian and Chinese speech tactics of compliment response. This study aims to answer the following main questions: What tactics of compliment response do native Russian and Chinese speakers favor in symmetrical communicative situations? And what are the main differences and similarities between Russian and Chinese speech behaviors in terms of tactics of compliment response? As part of this study, we conducted a semi-closed survey with the participation of 300 Russian and 300 Chinese students. The results showed that Russian and Chinese youth overwhelmingly accept compliments from other people, and do so mostly verbally. At the same time, Chinese people reject compliments almost twice as often as Russians, especially in the aforementioned situations, and Chinese men do it more often than women.

Keywords

accepting compliment, compliment, compliment response, rejecting compliment, speech behavior

Received

07.08.2024

Publication date

27.10.2024

Number of characters

30218

Cite

GOST	Sboev A., Sboeva D. Compliment response in Russian and Chinese speech behavior // Vostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost – 2024. – Issue 5 C. 224-239 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://vostokoriens.jes.su/S086919080031928-7-1 (circulation date: 01.11.2024). DOI: 10.31696/S086919080031928-7
MLA	Sboev, Aleksandr, Sboeva, Daria "Compliment response in Russian and Chinese speech behavior." Vostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost 5 (2024):224-239. DOI: 10.31696/S086919080031928-7
APA	Sboev A., Sboeva D. (2024). Compliment response in Russian and Chinese speech behavior. Vostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost (5), pp.224-239 DOI: 10.31696/S086919080031928-7

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Introduction

Literature review

Compliment responses in Russian and Chinese


1	Introduction
2	Compliment tactic, being an effective emotionally attuning speech act, is certainly a culturally conditioned speech tactic, which represents a twofold formation: compliment and compliment response, whereby a compliment response is the closing part of this adjacent pair, an element of a basic frame that helps communicators signify the result of their analysis of each other's speech behavior [Naiman, 2015]. In terms of social behavior, compliments embody evaluation and appreciation of people, and reflect cultural norms and values of the society in which they exist [Li, 2007].
3	This article focuses on the compliment response tactic in particular because of its ability to form and reflect the emotional state of communicators, express national and cultural idiosyncrasies and national-psychological characteristics. In his classic work, devoted to the semantic and pragmatic analysis of compliments, Manes offers the following metaphor for this speech act – "a mirror of cultural values" [Manes, 1983].
4	Academic research on compliment response in a particular linguoculture has practical significance in foreign language training, because when learning another language, it is necessary to be aware and knowledgeable of the culture, history and other aspects of the evolution of the people of the target language. In order to use a language properly in the context of a certain cultural background, we should pay more attention to various aspects of cultural differences in training and intercultural communication [Li, 2007]. In this regard, Sternin notes that "a contrastive study of national idiosyncrasies of communication of different peoples gains special significance" [Sternin, 2002].
5	The use of compliments and compliment responses reflects the quality of the speaker's behavior and politeness norms. It is an external manifestation of the speaker's basic qualities and linguistic abilities. Moreover, it indicates their belonging to a certain region, nationality, and even reflects the social and cultural environment of the country, being a manifestation of the "linguistic function of cultural values" [Xin, 2018]. Therefore, studying the ways that native speakers pay compliments to one another, under what circumstances, and how they react to them, can help us better understand the national and cultural values of the country of the target language, as well as the country's social structure.
6	Inclusion of findings of such studies in the curriculum of foreign language courses would help students gain speech competence more effectively. The success of intercultural communication depends on how well-formed this element of communicative competence is [Doronina, 2014]. To avoid communication faux pas it is necessary to "master the sociocultural component of a language unit content, which is learned through communication with native speakers and speech practice in language classes" [Shchukin, 2012]. Acquiring language abilities is not enough – students must also develop intercultural communication abilities [Ren, 2007], because a simple sociolinguistic transfer, which is understood as "the use of rules of speaking of one's own speech community or cultural group when interacting with members of another community or group" [Chick, 1996], in an intercultural communication can often result in communicative failures [Qu, Wang, 2005].
7	Literature review For several decades the speech act of compliment response has been the object of academic research in the field of pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, as such it has become one of the most studied speech acts. Among the most significant studies of compliment response in English, Chinese, German and other languages are the works of Pomerantz, Herbert, Wolfson, Holmes, Chen, Yuan, Golato, Heritage and others. Among the scientists who have made singular contributions to the study of compliment and compliment response in Russian speech behavior, are Issers, who has analyzed the speech situation of compliment in general and the speech behavior of communicators in it, and Formanovskaya, who describes this twofold tactic as an important part of Russian speech etiquette. The scientists put a special emphasis on comparing cultures in their research. There have been empirical studies based on the material of various languages devoted to the comparison of compliment response tactics. Herbert studied the difference in compliment responses in the speech behavior of English-speaking Americans versus South Africans – he concluded that compliment acceptance in the speech behavior of the former was much rarer than in the speech behavior of the latter [Herbert, 1989]. Herbert also devoted a separate comparative study to the peculiarities of compliment and compliment response speech delivery in English and Polish speech behaviors [Herbert, 1991]. Golato has conducted empirical studies of compliment response tactics in American English and German, noting the greater tendency of American native speakers to express appreciation in response to a compliment compared to German speakers [Golato, 2002].

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