On the Influence of Gender on Complimenting (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, University of Trier, language: English, abstract: The aim of this theoretical paper is to show differences of women and men in complimenting and to explain intervening variables in the gender-specific compliment behaviour. Even if compliments are two-unit turns, the term paper will, due to space limitations, only focus on selected aspects of complimenting, which will be distribution, topics and patterns, and leave out compliment responses. The chosen aspects are the most significant and representative to show differences in and influences on male and female compliment behaviour. The study of the influence of gender on complimenting is of interest since it provides insights into the complex differences of language use of men and women. It also provides interesting facts about sex-related values and the role of society for gender-specific differences.

The term paper will be mainly based on the findings of three authors and the corresponding corpora: Janet Holmes and her New Zealand corpus, Robert Herbert and his American English data as well as Nessa Wolfson and her American English findings. All compliments were collected by the researchers and their students, predominantly within their community, through an ethnographic method in either New Zealand or the United States of America.

The first part of the work will provide an explanation of compliments. A general definition will be given, as well as some interesting features will be mentioned briefly. Afterwards, the basic functions of compliments will be explained. The second part will focus on the influence of gender on complimenting. First, the unequal distribution of compliments will be discussed. Second, the sex-related differences in the choice of topics will be dealt with and finally the gender-based preferences for patterns will be explained.