Formulas and topics in Turkish and English compliments

Abstract

This study aims to describe compliment Speech Events across English and Turkish Languages in terms of their formulas and topics. The data consists of 50 English and 50 Turkish compliments naturally produced by native speakers. The Field Method was used as a data collection tool. The compliment formulas are described and topics are classified according to possession, appearance, performance, attribute and skill. The findings suggest that performance of compliments in both groups are quite formulaic regarding their generic structures and show strong similarities and differences in this aspect, providing some implications regarding pragmatic competence.