A Study Of Compliment Responses By Female Chinese-english Bilinguals In China

Chinese-English bilinguals are affected by the interaction caused by both Chinese and Western cultures.Thus,it is significant to unveil how this interaction affects the bilinguals’ conceptual system and it has also been a subject full of controversy.This controversy mainly stems from bicultural-bilingual individuals’ acculturation mode,namely,whether bicultural-bilingual individuals adopt a uni-dimensional,bi-dimensional or dynamic cultural adaptation mode.The uni-dimensional model believes that bicultural-bilingual individuals might assimilate the second culture while alienating their native culture.Unlike the uni-dimensional model,the bi-dimensional model holds that bicultural-bilingual individuals both maintain their native culture and adapt to the second culture.In recent years,Hong et al.(2000)propose the bilinguals’ Dynamic Constructivist Approach to Culture and Cognition.This theory holds that acculturation can be regarded as a more proactive process during which bicultural-bilingual individuals who have internalized multiple cultures have the flexibility to effectively control them.They can switch cultural frameworks and respond appropriately according to different cultural stimuli.Nevertheless,the actual mechanism of bicultural-bilingual individuals’ acculturation may be much more complicated and scholars still hold controversy about it.Therefore,it requires more empirical research to verify the acculturation mode of bicultural-bilingual individuals and it can be investigated in the field of pragmatics.In order to investigate the acculturation mode of Chinese-English bilinguals,Eslami & Yang(2018)compare the compliment responses(CRs)of Chinese-English bilinguals on Chinese social network site(Renren)with those on English social network site(Facebook),confirming that Chinese-English bilinguals can flexibly convert CR patterns on these two platforms.This finding confirms that the acculturation mode of Chinese-English bilinguals is dynamically constructed.In addition,in terms of language choice,Chinese responses are more common on Chinese social network site(Renren),while English responses are more frequently used on English social network site(Facebook).There are only a small number of CRs in a mixture of both Chinese and English,which supports the theory of linguistic adaptation.However,there exist some limitations in the study of Eslami & Yang(2018):(1)The data are collected from social network platforms,so it is closer to written form rather than daily conversation.Thus,it cannot reflect the real situation of Chinese-English bilinguals’ daily communications;(2)Their research only considers the responses on the websites and does not take into account the effects of compliments,namely,the differences and similarities in CR strategies of Chinese-English bilinguals when facing Chinese and English compliments respectively;(3)Nor do they consider what language(Chinese,English,other)will Chinese-English bilinguals use to respond,when facing Chinese and English compliments respectively;(4)Their study does not consider the effects of variables such as gender on pragmatic styles.Neither have they observed whether the gender(of both a complimenter and complimentee)affects the CR strategies.The basic purpose of this research is to explore the acculturation mode of Chinese-English bilinguals,so as to participate in the discussion of this inconclusive research topic.The participants are female Chinese-English bilinguals from Lanzhou University.The significance of the research is to:(1)explore the overall CR strategies of female Chinese-English bilinguals in their daily conversations,rather than online conversations;(2)explore their natural response strategies in the face of Chinese and English compliments,with an attempt to examine the acculturation mode;(3)test when facing Chinese and English compliments,they would naturally choose which language(Chinese,English,other)to respond;(4)compare their natural response strategies when facing male and female complimenter’s compliments,and confirm whether complimenter’s gender will affect CR strategies.Therefore,this study is intended to answer four questions:(1)What are the characteristics of female Chinese-English bilinguals’ CRs? Are they more inclined to accept compliments or not?(2)Will compliments in different languages(Chinese compliments,English compliments)affect the choice of CR strategies(accepted or not accepted)by the participants? If yes,how does it affect the strategies?(3)Facing to compliments in Chinese or in English,do the participants use the same language which is consistent with language(Chinese or English)that the complimenter uses? If not,what are the inconsistent cases?(4)Does the complimenter’s gender affect the strategies in the participants’ CRs? If yes,how does it affect the strategies?Quantitative and qualitative research methods are both applied in this study,together with semi-natural conversation recordings and retrospective interviews for data collection.Ultimately,256 compliments are collected.The results of the study show:(1)Generally speaking,in daily conversations,the number of accepting strategies is slightly more than that of non-accepting strategies,but there is no significant difference between them.This finding shows that the CR strategies of participants are influenced by both Chinese and Western cultures,and are slightly inclined towards the Western tradition of accepting.(2)The participants’ CRs are significantly different between facing Chinese compliments and facing English compliments.Once responding Chinese compliments,they prime the Chinese cultural framework,and thus they tend to observe modesty maxim by using non-accepting strategies in CRs.Once responding English compliments,they prime the English cultural framework,and thus they tend to observe agreement maxim by using accepting strategies in CRs.This finding proves that they adopt a dynamically constructed mode of acculturation and the theory of Dynamic Constructivist Approach to Culture and Cognition proposed by Hong et al.(2000)is supported.(3)The vast majority of CRs are in the same language consistent with the language of compliments,and only a few responses are cross-lingual or mixed,which verifies the adaptability between language choice and contexts.(4)The participants’ CRs are not significantly different between male and female complimenters,which reflects that the differences between men and women are gradually narrowing,and the social status of men and women is moving towards equality.In conclusion,by exploring the CR strategies of female Chinese-English bilinguals,the results show that they can indeed flexibly convert different cultural system knowledge when responding Chinese and English compliments,so as to make appropriate CRs.Therefore,this study verifies that female Chinese-English bilinguals adopt a dynamic acculturation mode,and also proves that the theory of Dynamic Constructivist Approach to Culture and Cognition proposed by Hong et al.(2000)is acceptable.