An analysis of compliments and responses to compliments in the film entitled the holiday

Oleh :
Ikha Oktavianti - C0306034 - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

This research focuses on the compliments used by the characters in the film entitled “The Holiday”. This research was conducted to describe the types of topics of compliment employed by the characters in the film entitled “The Holiday”, the functions of each type of topics of compliment, and also the compliment responses expressed by the addressees in the film. This research is a descriptive qualitative research. This research uses pragmatic approach. The technique of sampling used is total sampling. All conversations containing compliments and the compliment responses were taken as the data. Based on the data analysis, the researcher draws conclusions as follows: There are four types of topics of compliments employed by the characters in the film entitled “The Holiday”. They are topic of personal appearance, topic of possession, topic of general ability, and topic of specific-act ability. Based on Wolfson’s classification of compliment functions, there are six functions of compliment proposed by Wolfson found in this research. They are: to affirm solidarity, to create or maintain rapport, to express admiration or approval, to encourage, to express positive evaluation, and also to strengthen or replace other speech act formulas. In responding the compliments, most of the addressees accept the compliments. The response acceptance of the compliment includes verbal and non verbal acceptance. In verbal acceptance, the addresses deliver the word thanks to respond to the speaker’s compliment. Meanwhile, the addressees respond to the compliment by smiling in the non verbal acceptance. Other upgrade, down grade, reassignment, question, and giving no acknowledgement. In the comment acceptance, the addressees accept the compliment and offer a relevant comment on the compliment. In the praise upgrade, the addressee accepts and asserts insufficiently of the compliment’s force. Meanwhile, in down grade, the compliment is not worth. In response of question, the addressee questions the sincerity or the appropriateness of the speaker’s compliment. Finally, in No Acknowledgment, the addressees give no indication of having heard the compliment, shift the topic, and even give no response. Based on the conclusions above, the researcher hopes that this research will give a contribution to the students in studying the speech act of compliments. There are still many cases on the study of compliments. It is suggested to other researchers who are interested in compliment speech act to conduct a further research on compliment structure and its vocabulary.