接触場面に見られる韓日の「ほめ」行動―初対面会話におけるやり取りを通して―

Abstract

Compliments have the function of smoothening the communication between people, by pleasing the one who gets praised and allowing them to feel psychologically closer. However the understanding of compliments can differ by cultural aspects, and this could possibly result in causing displeasure or misunderstanding in situations of intercultural communication. The majority of recent research on ‘the compliments of Japanese and Korean’, focuses on the occasion of two native speakers communicating in their language, however doesn’t focus on the contact scene, when one of the speakers is not a native speaker. In this study, which is based on the previous studies, it investigates compliments focused on frequency, objects, expression and responding, in the first meeting conversation between a native Japanese speaker and Japanese learners. The results showed that the conversation between two native speakers, and the contact scene(in which one of the speakers is not the native speaker) are different in terms of compliments. In the contact scene, it seemed that the native Japanese speaker was more likely to praise and give compliments to the learner. Both the native speaker and the learner tended to give compliments mostly about the ‘ability’ and ‘people related to it’. As the ‘expression’, the native Japanese speaker used ‘positive appraisal’ and other information, and as the ‘responding’, it was shown that the one who was praised, denied the compliments, or acknowledged. Like this, it is hard to assume that compliments in the contact scene are relevant to the speakers’ native language. It is indicated that ‘giving compliments’ depended on the ability of the learners to speak Japanese, and the fact that the native Japanese speaker was conscious of the contact scene. Furthermore, it is important to note that the speakers have met for the first time. The learner who spoke Japanese fluently seemed to be familiar with the cultural aspects of Japanese language, and the native speaker as well, didn’t seem to be aware of the fact that the learner is not a native speaker.