A Study Of Compliments In Diplomatic Discourse From A Pragmatic Perspective

Compliment is a tool for establishing friendship that creates ties of solidarity in communication. It is also an important social strategy which functions as a conversational opener and allows meaningful social interactions to follow. Holmes (1983: 446) defines compliment as a speech act which"explicitly or implicitly attributes credit to someone other than the speaker, the person addressed, for some'good'(possession, characteristic, skill, etc) which is positively valued by the speaker and the hearer". Further more, compliments are frequently applied in social communications, especially in diplomatic language, which, as a language variety, has unique features and strategies. This thesis aims to analyze compliments in diplomatic discourse from a pragmatic perspective.Compliment is a speech act which above all intends to show politeness. Whether polite or not, it is a matter of judgment based on the participants'perception in certain discourses. With the application of the Politeness Principle and the Face Theory, this thesis analyzes the functions, topics, forms, responses and devices of compliments in diplomatic discourse based on the collected data. This study aims to: 1) further explore the study of the speech act of compliment through analyzing the compliments in diplomatic discourse; 2) attempt to find that pragmatic rules are applicable to the compliments in diplomatic discourse, after discussing the functions, topics, responses and forms of compliments; 3) propose practical educational implications in language teaching and learning and reveal the significance of enhancing students'language competence.In this thesis, the use of"diplomacy"is confined to political diplomacy only, and"diplomatic discourse"is limited to oral and written practices in negotiations, speeches, addresses, telegraphs, agreements, and letters between diplomats or government leaders in dealing with political foreign affairs.This thesis analyzes the strategic and pragmatic function of compliments in a special area of social communication—diplomatic discourses. The choice of compliment language in diplomatic discourse is restrained or influenced by the diplomatic context in order to meet the special aim of diplomacy. This thesis illustrates compliments through typical examples to analyze diplomatic language strategy from a pragmatic perspective: how diplomats try or manage to reduce face threatening with the strategy of compliment.