Creativity in compliment responses in Japanese everyday talk

This article explores how participants respond to compliments in Japanese everyday interactions. Even though compliments and responses (C-R) make a well-established format that contains a relatively high degree of fixedness and social and temporal restrictions, examinations of video-recorded Japanese conversation data show that a compliment recipient (Rt) handles a compliment delivered by a compliment giver (Gv) in a range of creative uses of language and the body. Focusing on negative responses that often start with iyaiya “no no”, we show that, in addition to formulaic responses, an Rt may add creative comments and/or perform embodied actions to partially accept the compliment or shift the perspective of the compliment. In short, Japanese speakers’ responses to compliments are much more creative and nuanced than previously assumed.