ABSTRACT
This research focuses on the analysis of the compliments and compliment responses employed by the characters in the TV-series entitled Smallville: Season 1 Episodes 1-18. This research was conducted to find out the types of the topics of compliment, the functions of compliment, and the responses of the compliment expressed by the characters in the TV-series entitled Smallville: Season 1 Episodes 1-18.
The approach employed in this research is Pragmatics. This research belongs to descriptive qualitative method which took purposive sampling technique or criterion-based sampling in collecting the data. 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: First, the characters of American TV-series entitled Smallville Season 1 Episodes 1-18 employed all the types of topics of compliment based on Wolfson’s theory of classification (personal appearance, possession, general ability, and specific-act ability). Second, all the compliments (personal appearance, possession, general ability, and specific-act ability) have many functions suitable with all of Wolfson’s classification of the compliment functions, and Noriko Ishihara’s summary of the functions of compliment, namely to express of admiration and/ or approval (12 data), to express the positive evaluation (12 data), to strengthen or even to replace other speech act formulas (7 data), to soften criticism (7 data), to encourage (6 data), to increase or to express solidarity (4 data), to create or maintain the rapport (4 data), to open and sustain conversation (2 data), to modify sarcasm (1 datum), to reinforce desired behavior (1 datum). Third, the addressees in the American TV-series entitled Smallville Season 1 Episodes 1-18 used all of Herbert’s theory of compliment responses namely; appreciation token including verbal and non verbal acceptance, comment acceptance, comment history, praise upgrade, praise downgrade, request interpretation, reassignment, return, qualification, question, disagreement, and no acknowledgment.