An analysis of compliments and their responses in the film entitled letters to juliet (A Pragmatics Approach)

Oleh :
Chatarina Wahyu Titi Murti - C0308025 - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

This research is focused on the compliments and their responses uttered by the characters in the film entitled Letters to Juliet. This research was conducted to describe the topics of compliment, the functions of compliment and the responses of the compliment expressed by the characters in the film entitled Letters to Juliet. This research is a pragmatic study. This research belongs to descriptive qualitative method which uses total sampling technique. All of the conversations which contain the compliments and the compliment responses were taken as the data. Based on the data analysis, the conclusions are drawn as follows: There are two types topics of compliments used by the characters in the film entitled Letters to Juliet. They are the topic of appearance and the topic of ability. Each topic is divided into two types. The topic of appearance is divided into personal appearance and possession. The topic of ability is divided into two types. They are general ability and specific-act ability. There are seven functions of compliment proposed by Wolfson found in this research. They are the function of compliments to increase solidarity (6 data), to express admiration and/or approval (6 data), to express positive evaluation (3 data), as encouragement (2 data), to replace speech act formula (2 data), as sarcasm (1 datum), and to soften criticism (1 datum). In responding the compliment, the researcher uses Herbert’s classification of compliment responses to analyze the response of compliment employed by the characters in the film entitled Letters to Juliet. Most of the addressees in the film entitled Letters to Juliet respond the compliment by using the nonverbal acceptance. The nonverbal acceptance is in the form of smiling. In the form of verbal acceptance, the addressees used the words thank you to respond the compliment. The other responses are comment acceptance, comment history, question, and no acknowledgment. Based on the conclusion above, the researcher hopes that there will be additional contribution to the study of the compliments and their responses. The other researches who are interested in pragmatic study especially focused on the compliments and their responses are suggested to do the same research to conduct additional input in revealing the compliments and the compliment responses.