本研究主要在探討中美人士對於英文讚美語之感知是否有顯著差異，其感知之界定主要分為三個層面：接受之可能性、讚美適當性、及讚美禮貌性。此外，對話者的社會地位與熟悉度是否亦對上述感知層面造成影響則為另一研究重點。研究對象包括50位以中文為母語之人士及50位以英文為母語之人士。兩組研究對象的年齡階層皆分布於20至25歲之間。研究工具則是以五點尺度量表進行資料蒐集。研究結果顯示，以中文為母語之人士及以英文為母語之人士對於英文讚美語之感知，在接受之可能性、讚美適當性、及讚美禮貌性三方面皆有顯著差異。在兩組研究對象中，皆有大約一半的人選擇了尺度四，意即“可能接受”、“適當的”、及“禮貌的”。然而，與以英文為母語之人士相較下，以中文為母語之人士對於英文讚美語之感知顯現出較高的不確定性，且有較高人數比例選擇尺度二，意即“可能不接受”、“不適當的”、及“不禮貌的”。反之，以英文為母語之人士則有較高人數比例選擇尺度五，意即“非常可能接受”、“非常適當的”、及“非常禮貌的”。而本研究亦發現對話者的社會地位及熟悉度皆與中美人士之感知有顯著相關。研究結果顯示，幾乎在所有社會地位與熟悉度的級別裡均發現類似型態的顯著差異。此外，與以英文為母語之人士的結果相較，以中文為母語之人士選擇尺度四的機會似乎隨對話者的社會地位及熟悉度的增加而提高。兩組研究對象間唯一沒有顯著差異的地方則在於對來自較高地位者之讚美語適當性的感知。即使以英文為母語之人士有稍高的傾向選擇“非常適當的”，兩組研究對象仍顯現出類似的感知結果，意即在兩組皆有超過一半以上選擇“適當的”，而較少選擇“非常不適當的”或“不適當的”。

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether any differences exist between Chinese and American English native speakers’ perceptions of English compliment situations with regard to likelihood of acceptance, appropriateness of compliment, and politeness of compliment. In addition, the effect of social variables, which were status and familiarity, were also explored. Fifty Chinese native speakers and fifty American English native speakers participated in the present study. The age range for each group was between 20 to 25 years old. A five-point scaled response questionnaire (SRQ) was used to elicit participants’ compliment perceptions. The results revealed that significant differences existed between Chinese and American English native speakers’ perceptions of English compliment situations with regard to likelihood of acceptance, appropriateness of compliment, and politeness of compliment. In both groups, almost half of the participants would choose scale four (i.e., likely, appropriate, polite) in all three dimensions. However, for Chinese participants, they were not only more uncertain about their perceptions of these compliments, but also more likely to choose scale two (i.e., likely not, inappropriate, impolite) in all three dimensions. In contrast, for American participants, they had higher tendency to choose scale five (i.e., very likely, very appropriate, very polite) in these three dimensions. Findings of the present study also showed that the social variables of status and familiarity were significantly associated with Chinese and American English native speakers’ perceptions. Almost all results revealed that across different levels of status and familiarity, similar significant differences between these two groups were also found. In addition, as compared to results of American English native speakers, the chances for the Chinese native speakers to choose scale four seemed to increase with the increase of social status and familiarity. The only insignificant difference between these two groups was found in their perceptions of the appropriateness of compliments from higher-status interlocutors. Specifically, even though the chances for American participants to perceive these compliments as “very appropriate” were a little higher than those for Chinese participants, both groups showed a similar pattern of perceptions, in which over half of the participants perceived these compliments as “appropriate” and only a few perceived them as “very inappropriate” or “inappropriate”.

Chapter 1 Introduction…………..…………………..……...…….……1
1.1 Background and Motivation……………………………………………………….1
1.2 Research Questions………………………………………………………………..6
1.3 Definition of terms………………………………………………………………...6
1.4 Significance of the study…………………………………………………………..8
1.5 Organization of the thesis………………………………………………………….8
Chapter 2 Literature Review……………….……………...………….11
2.1 Speech act theory…………………………………………………………………11
2.2 Politeness…………………………………………………………………………13
2.3 Compliment speech act…………………………………………………………..19
2.3.1 The formula of a compliment……………………………………………..20
2.4 Empirical studies of English compliment speech acts………...……………...….24
2.5 Perception of compliment speech act…………………………………………….26
Chapter 3 Method……………………………...…………...………….35
3.1 Participants……………………………………………………………………….35
3.2 Materials………………………………………………………………………….36
3.2.1 Scaled-Response Questionnaire (SRQ)…………………………………...37
3.3 Procedure…………………………………………………………………………41
3.4 Data Analysis……………………………………………………………………..41
Chapter 4 Results………………………………………...…...………..43
4.1 Comparison of compliment perception…………………………………………..43
4.2 Comparison of compliment perception by social variables……………..……….46
4.2.1 Likelihood of acceptance………………………………………………….47
4.2.1.1 Social status………………………………………………………47
4.2.1.2 Familiarity………………………………………………………..50
4.2.2 Appropriateness of compliment…………………………………………..52
4.2.2.1 Social status………………………………………………………52
4.2.2.2 Familiarity………………………………………………………..55
4.2.3 Politeness of compliment…………………………………………………57
4.2.3.1 Social status………………………………………………………57
4.2.3.2 Familiarity………………………………………………………..60
Chapter 5 Discussion and Conclusion…………………..…..………..65
5.1 Comparison of compliment perception……………..……………………………65
5.2 Effect of social variables……..…………………………………………………..68
5.2.1 Social status……………………………………………………………….68
5.2.2 Familiarity………………………………………………………………...72
5.3 Pedagogical implications…………………………………………………………75
5.4 Limitations……………………………………………………………………….76
References………………………………………………………………77
Appendix A...……………………………………………...………...….81
Appendix B...……………………………………………...………...….87

Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do thing with words. New York: Oxford University Press.
Barnlund, D. C., & Araki, S. (1985). Intercultural encounters: The management of compliments by Japanese and Americans. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 16, 9-26.
Bergman, M. L., & Kasper, G. (1993). Perception and performance in native and nonnative apology. In G. Kasper & S. Blum-kulka (Eds.), Interlanguage pragmatics (pp. 82-107). New York: Oxford University Press.
Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, G. (1989). Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies. Norwood, NJ: Albex.
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1978). Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomenon. In E. Goody (Ed.), Questions and politeness: Strategies in social interaction (pp. 56-311). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1, 1-47.
Carrell, P. L., & Konneker, B. H. (1981). Politeness: Comparing native and nonnative judgments. Language Learning, 31, 17-30.
Chen, R. (1993). Responding to compliment: A contrastive study of politeness strategies between American English and Chinese speakers. Journal of Pragmatics, 20, 49-75.
Chen, S. H. (2003). Compliment response strategies in Mandarin Chinese: Politeness phenomenon revisited. Concentric: Studies in English Literature and Linguistics, 29.2, 157-184.
Chen, H. L. (2006). A Study of Chinese EFL interlanguage requests. Unpublished master’s thesis, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Connor-Linton, J. (2006). Chi square tutorial. Retrieved from http://www.garnetthenley.com/ChiSquareLec.pdf
Fong, M. (1995). Chinese immigrants' interpretations of their intercultural compliment interactions with European Americans (Doctoral dissertation, University of Washington, 1995). Dissertation Abstracts International, 55, 2638.
Fong, M. (1998). Chinese immigrants’ perceptions of semantic dimensions of direct/indirect communication in intercultural compliment interactions with North Americans. The Howard Journal of Communication, 9, 245-262.
Fraser, B. (1990). Perspectives on politeness. Journal of Pragmatics, 14, 219-236.

Goffman, E. (1971). Relations in public: Microstudies of the public order. New York: Harper & Row.
Grice, P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics (Vol. 3): Speech acts (pp. 41-58). New York: Academic Press.
Gu, Y. (1990). Politeness phenomenon in modern Chinese. Journal of Pragmatics, 14, 237-257.
Gumperz, J. (1982). Discourse strategies. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hebert, R. K. (1989). The ethnography of English compliments and compliment responses: A contrastive sketch. In W. Olesky (Ed.), Contrastive pragmatics (pp. 3-35). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Herbert, R. K., & Straight, H. S. (1989). Compliment-rejection versus compliment-avoidance: Listener-based versus speaker-based pragmatic strategies. Language and Communication, 9 (1), 35-47.
Hebert, R. K. (1990). Sex-based differences in compliment behavior. 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., & Brown, D. F. (1987). Teachers and students learning about compliments. TESOL Quarterly, 21 (3), 523-546.
Holmes, J. (1988). Paying compliments: A sex-preferential politeness strategy. Journal of Pragmatics, 12, 445-465.
Hou, Y. C. (2006). A cross-cultural study of the perception of apology—effect of contextual factors, exposure to the target language, interlocutor ethnicity and task language. Unpublished master’s thesis, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Hu, H. C. (1944). The Chinese concept of ‘face’. American Anthropologist, 46, 45-64.
Jung, J. Y. (2002). Issues in acquisitional pragmatics. Working Papers in TESOL and Applied Linguistics, 2, 1-34.
Kasper, G. (1989). Variation in interlanguage speech realization. In S. Gass, C. Madden, D. Preston & L. Selinker (Eds.), Variation in second language acquisition: Discourse and pragmatics (pp. 37-58). Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters.
Kasper, G., & Rose, K. R. (2002). Pragmatic development in a second language. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Kwan, V. W. (2005). Chinese perceptions of compliments in America. Retrieved from http://www.vinccikwan.com/maportfolio/KwanV-compliments.pdf
Knapp, M., Hopper, R., & Bell,R. (1984). Compliments: A descriptive taxonomy. Journal of Communication, 34, 12-31.
Lakoff, R. (1973). The logic of politeness: Or minding your p’s and q’s. Chicago Linguistic Society, 9, 292-305.
Lang, Y. (1998). “Thank you” and “No, no”: Communicative context and Chinese perceptions of and responses to American English compliments (Doctoral dissertation, University of Tennessee, 1998). Dissertation Abstracts International, 30, 2339.
Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B. (1989). Praising and complimenting. In W. Oleksy (Ed.), Contrastive pragmatics (pp. 73-100). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Leech, G. N. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. New York: Longman.
Liu, S. H. (2004). Social variables and perception of English request strategies: A case study of Taiwanese EFL junior high school learners. Unpublished master’s thesis, National Taipei University of Education, Taipei, Taiwan.
Manes, J. (1983). Compliments: A mirror of cultural values. In W. Nessa & J. Elliot (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language acquisition (pp. 96-102). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Manes, J., & Woflson, N. (1981). The compliment formula. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), Conversational routine: Explorations in standardized communication situations prepatterned speech (pp. 115-132). New York: Mouton.
Mao, L. R. (1994). Beyond politeness theory: Face revisited and renewed. Journal of Pragmatics, 21 (5), 451-486.
Matsumoto, Y. (1988). Reexamination of the universality of face. Journal of Pragmatics, 12, 403-426.
Pomerantz, A. (1978). Compliment responses: Notes on the cooperation of multiple constraints. In J. Schenkein (Ed.), Studies in the organization of conversational interaction (pp. 79-112). New York: Academic Press.
Qu, J., & Wang, L. (2005). Pragmatic transfer in compliment responses by Chinese learners of English. Sino-US English Teaching, 12, 66-75.
Searle, J. R. (1976). The classification of illocutionary acts. Language in Society, 5, 1-24.
Schmidt, R. W., & Richards, J. C. (1980). Speech acts and second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 1, 129-157.
Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in interaction: An introduction to pragmatics. New York: Longman.
Trosborg, A. (1995). Interlanguage pragmatics: Requests, complaints, and apologies. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Wang, Y. F., & Tsai, P. H. (2003). An empirical study on compliments and compliment responses in Taiwan Mandarin conversation. Concentric: Studies in English Literature and Linguistics, 29.2, 118-156.
Wolfson, N. (1981). Compliments in cross-cultural perspectives. TESOL Quarterly, 15 (2), 117-124.
Wolfson, N. (1983). An empirically based analysis of complimenting in American English. In N. Wolfson & E. Judd (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language acquisition (pp. 89-95). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Wolfson, N. (1984). Pretty is as pretty does. Applied Linguistics, 5, 236-244.
Wolfson, N. (1988). The bulge: A theory of speech behavior and social distance. In J. Fine (Ed.), Second language discourse: A textbook of current research (pp. 21-38). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Wolfons, N. (1989). Perspectives: Sociolinguistics and TESOL. New York: Newbury House.
Wolfson, N. (1990). Intercultural communication and the analysis of conversation. In Penn Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, 6. Eric Document Reproduction Service. ED: 335934.
Yu. M. C. (2003). On the universality of face: Evidence from Chinese compliment response behavior. Journal of Pragmatics, 35, 1679-1710.
Yu, M. C. (2005). Sociolinguistic competence in the complimenting act of Native Chinese and American speakers: A mirror of cultural values. Language and Speech, 48 (1), 91-119.
Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press.