The compliment as a social strategy

Within the framework of ethnography of speaking, this paper presents an analysis of the speech act of complimenting in American English. The major focus is a discussion of the way in which compliments are used in a variety of social situations. It is argued that, whatever the immediate discourse function, complimenting has the underlying social function of creating or reinforcing solidarity between the speaker and the addressee. The linguistic structure of compliments is seen to be closely tied to this basic interactive function.