A Cross-cultural Analysis of Compliment Responses by Native English Speakers and Korean Learners of English

Abstract

Jung, Euen Hyuk (Sarah) & Lee, Mi-hyun. 2007. A Cross-cultural Analysis of Compliment Responses by Native English Speakers and Korean Learners of English, Korean Journal of Linguistics, 32-1, 143-163. Although studies have examined compliment response speech acts in various languages, little research has compared such acts of native English speakers and Korean learners of English. Moreover, despite the importance of topics and social status in the act of compliment response, attention so far has not been paid to how topics and social status interact in the speech act. This study intends to examine (a) the social functions of compliment responses of Koreans and Americans, and (b) the relationship between topics and social status in their compliment response behaviors. The present study involved 30 Korean and 30 American students and the data were collected via a Discourse Completion Test. The results showed overall that Koreans tended to deflect compliments while Americans were more likely to accept them. Through an analysis of the compliment response strategies used by the two groups, the difference in the social function of compliment responses was revealed. Compliment responses may serve to strengthen solidarity in American culture, while in Korean culture they are closely related to the great value placed on modesty and debt-sensitiveness. With respect to the relationship between social status and compliment topics, Koreans and Americans showed both similarities and differences in their response strategies. (Yonsei University)