Thanks! You look rather dashing yourself. : A contrastive pragmatics investigation of Singaporean and American compliment responses

Abstract: Set within the framework of the newly established field of variational pragmatics (Schneider and Barron, 2008), this study investigates pragmatic variation between two different regional varieties of English, namely American English and Singaporean English. Specifically, the speech act of compliment responses is compared. The data were collected through written discourse completion tasks (DCT) and responses were analysed and coded using an adapted version of Holmes’ (1988) categorization system for compliment responses (CRs). The CRs come from a total of 40 participants and a total of 320 compliment responses were analysed. The DCT was supplemented by an introspective-recall with six participants. The findings demonstrate that the preferred strategy for both groups is in the order of accept, evade and reject. Even so, the Singaporeans use more reject strategies and less accept strategies than the Americans do. Further, the Americans employ more combination strategies than the Singaporeans. The Singaporeans however, employ more non-verbal and paralinguistic cues than the Americans. The results also show differences in the two varieties’ attitudes to and perceptions of compliment responses. In addition, the study suggests that compliments in Singapore might be undergoing a change. The findings are particularly important for pedagogical purposes.