Pragmatic Features of the Speech Act of Compliment in a Turkish TV Drama

Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz, Yasemin Çetereisi, Gulay Asit

Abstract


Research on the speech act of compliment is abundant; however, studies on the characteristics of compliments in Turkish, in general, and in Turkish TV dramas, in particular, are scarce. Therefore, to fill this research gap, the present study set out to investigate the use of compliments in a popular Turkish soap opera. To achieve the purposes of this research, thirty-two episodes of a TV drama called Sahra were selected at random to be viewed and analyzed while focusing on the topics, functions, and characteristics of compliments with reference to the role of gender. Four main topics and functions, and two major characteristics of Turkish compliments emerged from the analysis of the data. Similarities and differences were also found in the use of compliments in Turkish and other languages. The findings may have implications for research on speech acts, in general, and complimenting behavior in TV dramas, in particular.

Keywords: Turkish compliments; TV drama; elaboration; exaggeration; gender


Full Text:

PDF

References


Ahmed, A. (2012). Women and soap-operas: Popularity, portrayal and perception. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 2(6), 1- 6.

Al-Mansoob, Najeeb Taher, K. S. Patil, K. S., & Alrefaee, Yasser Mohammed (2019). A Cross-cultural Study of the Speech Act of Compliments in American English and Yemeni Arabic. LANGKAWI Journal 5(1): 1-12.

Keshavarz, M. H. (2015). Contrastive Analysis, Error Analysis, and Interlanguage (Revised Edition). Tehran: Rahnama Press.

Baek, G.(1998). A cross-cultural study of compliments and compliment responses in English and Korean. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Seoul National University, Seoul.

Behnam, B., & Amizadeh, Niloufar (2011). A comparative study of the compliments and compliment responses between English and Persian TV interviews. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 17(1), 65–78.

Billmyer, K. (1990). I really like your lifestile: Learners learning how to compliment. Penn Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, 6(2), 31-48.

Boroujeni, A. J., Domakani, M. R., & Sheykhi, S. (2016). Comparative Cross-Cultural Analysis of Compliments in English and Persian Series. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 9(2), pp. 177—187.

Brown, P., & Levinson, S.D. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brunsdon, C. (2000). The feminist, the housewife, and the soap opera. New York: Oxford.

Çevik, B. Senem (2014). Turkish Soap Opera Diplomacy: A Western Projection by a Muslim Source. Exchange: The Journal of Public Diplomacy, Vol. 5, Iss. 1, Art. 6

Coates, J. (1993). Women, men, and language: A sociolinguistic account of gender differences in language. London: Longman.

Creese, A. (1991). Speech act variation in British and American English. Penn Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, 7(2), 37–58.

Cordella, M, Large, H., & Pardo, V. (1995). Complimenting behavior in Australian English and Spanish speech. Multilingua, 14(3), 235-252.

Doherty, G. (2008). On quality in education. Quality assurance in Education, 16(3), 255-265.

Duan, Cheng-gang, & Guo, Kan-jun (2009). Sex-Based Differences in Chinese Written Compliment Behavior. Journal of University of Science and Technology, Beijing, Social Sciences Edition, 25(3), 109-115.

Eslami, Z. R., Jabbari, N., & Kuo, Li-Jen (2015). Compliment response behaviour on Facebook: A study with Iranian Facebook users. International Review of Pragmatics 7, 244–277

Farenkia, B.M (2013). Canadian and Cameroonian English-speaking university students' compliment strategies. International Journal of Linguistics, 5(3), 69-98.

Furko, B. P., & Dudas, E. (2012). Gender Differences in Complimenting Strategies with Special Reference to the Compliment Response Patterns of Hungarian Undergraduate Students. Argumentum, 8, 136–157.

Gannon, C. (2009). Feminism & soap opera. Social & Political Review 19: 87-97. Dublin: Trinity College.

Göregenli, M. (1997). Individualistic-collectivistic tendencies in a Turkish sample. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 28(6), 787-794.

Herbert, R. K. (1990). Sex-based differences in compliment behaviour. Language in Society, 19, 201-224.

Holmes, J. (1986). Compliments and compliment responses in New Zealand English. Anthropological Linguistics, 28(4) 485-508.

Holmes, J. (1988). Paying compliments: A sex-preferential politeness strategy. Journal of Pragmatics, 12, 445-465.

Holmes, J. (1995). Women, men and politeness. London: Longman.

Jucker A. H. et al. (2008). Fishing for compliments. In Andreas. H. Jucker & Irma Taavitsainen (Eds.), Speech acts in the history of English (pp. 273-294). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Knapp, M., Hopper, R., & Robert A. Bell (1984). Compliments: A descriptive taxonomy. Journal of Communication, 34, 12 –31.

Lambertz, K, & Hebrok, M. (2011). Women’s Language in Soap Operas. Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication 4, 1(2), 39‐54.

Lorenzo-Dus, N. (2001). Compliment responses among British and Spanish university students: A contrastive study. Journal of Pragmatics, 33(1), 107-127.

Manes, J. & Wolfson, N. (1981). The compliment formula. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), Conversational routine: Explorations in standardized communication situations and prepatterned speech (pp. 116-132).The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton Publishers.

Manes, J. (1983). Compliments: A mirror of cultural values. In N. Wolfson and E. Judd (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language acquisition (82-95). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Matsuura, H. (2004). Compliment-giving behavior in American English and Japanese. JALT Journal 26(2),147-170.

Monjezi, M. (2014). The effects of proficiency and gender on the compliments and compliment responses made by Iranian EFL learners. International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World 5(1), 625-638.

Morales, R.C (2012). Compliment Responses across Gender in Philippine Context. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies,18(1), 47-60.

Negargar, (2015). A contrastive study of speech act of greeting in two Persian and English soap operas with regard to the level of formality, structure and frequency. International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Literature, 3(6), 47-60.

Nelson, G., L, ElBakary, Waguida, & Al-Batal, Mahmoud (1993). Egyptian and American compliments: A cross-cultural study. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 17(3), 293-313.

Rapping, E. (2002). Daytime utopias: If you lived in pine valley, you’d be home. In. Henry Jenkins, Tara McPherson, & Jane Shattuc (Eds.), Hop on Pop: The politics and pleasure of popular culture (pp.47- 65). Durham: Duke University Press.

Rose, K. (2001). Compliments and compliment responses in film: Implications for pragmatics research and language teaching. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 39, 309-326.

Ruhi, Ş. (2006). Politeness in compliment responses: A perspective from naturally occurring exchanges in Turkish. Pragmatics, 16(1), 43-101.

Saifi, M.A, & Sultani, Ahmad, S.S (2017). Compliment and Compliment Responses: A Comparative Study between Dari and English Native Speakers. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 7(11), 104-109.

Şakırgil, C. & Çubukçu, H. (2012). Formulas and topics in Turkish and English compliments. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, ELSEVIER 70, 1126- 1135.

Salgado, E.F & Witten, M. T. (2019). A comparative study of Mexican and Irish compliment responses. Colomb. Appl. Linguist. J., 21(1), pp. 125-138. http://dx.doi.org/10.14483/22487085.14670

Sawadogo, M. (2018). The concept of complimenting in light of the Moore language in Burkina Faso. Pragmatics, 28(1), 139–156.

doi 10.1075/prag.00005.saw issn 1018-2101/e-issn 2406-4238

Shokouhi, S & Rezaei,A. (2015). The Importance of Teaching Pragmatics in

the Class room (Focus on Complimenting). Journal for the Study of English Linguistics 3(1), 101–107. doi: 10.5296/jsel.v3i1.7890

Soukup, P.A. (2016). Studying soap operas. Communication Research Trends, 35(3),

–55.

Sun, N. (2013). Gender-based differences in complimenting behaviour: A critical literature review. The ANU Undergraduate Research Journal, 5, 213-222.

Sun, Z. (2002). A Study of Gender Differences in Compliments and Compliment Responses in Chinese Context. Unpublished MA dissertation, School of Foreign Studies, Anhui University.

Wolfson, N. (1983). An empirically-based analysis of complimenting in American English. In N. Wolfson & E. Judd (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition (pp. 82-95). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Yu, M. C (2005). Sociolinguistic competence in the complimenting act of native Chinese and American English speakers: A mirror of cultural value. Language and Speech 48(1), 91–119.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.18326/jopr.v2i1.1-25

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2020 Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz, Yasemin Çetereisi, Gulay Asit

License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Published by:  UIN Salatiga, ISSN  2656-8020  (Media Online)
Intending to improve the journal's quality since 28th October 2022, this journal has officially cooperated with INaPrA (Indonesian Pragmatics Association). See The MoU Manuscript.

Contact Us: Jl. Lingkar Salatiga Km. 02, Pulutan, Sidorejo, Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia