Searle also proposed the notion of indirect speech act, which aimed to explain indirect language。 According to Searle, when a speaker is using indirect language, he is performing two speech acts simultaneously: primary speech act (the speaker’s goal of communication) and secondary speech act (the means by which he achieves his goal)。 When indirect speech act is performed, the speaker transfers the meaning beyond the literal meaning to the hearer, which is supposed to be achieved through the hearer’s general knowledge and knowledge of some pragmatic theories and principles。

2。3 Studies on Compliment Abroad来自优Y尔L论W文Q网wWw.YouERw.com 加QQ7520~18766

In the 1970s, the study of compliment in western countries made a great progress。 One of the most important contributions was made by Nessa Wolfson (1981)。 He collected and analyzed more than 1200 compliment corpuses, researched on compliment from a cross-cultural perspective and provided a specific analysis of complimenting behavior in American English。 From the cross-cultural perspective, he found that “the complimenting behavior varies cross-culturally along a number of dimensions” (Wolfson 123)。 This initiated cross-cultural study on compliment at that time。 

As for the topic, according to Janet Holmes (1986), “the vast majority of compliments refer to just a few broad topics: appearance, ability or a good performance, possessions, and some aspect of personality or friendliness” (Holmes 496)。 And the specific result is as showed in the following table: 

Topic No。 % Example

Appearance 262 50。7 I like your hair all curly。

Ability/Performance 158 30。6 You were skiing well today。

Possession 58 11。2 What a lovey person!

Personality/ Friendship 25 4。8 You’re such a gentle person。

others 14 2。7

Total 517 100

(Holmes 496)

The response strategy is another important component of complimenting behavior。 According to Herbert (1986), there are twelve types of American compliment response: 

Response Type Example

Agreement 1。appreciation taken Thanks; Thank you!

2。comment acceptance-single Thanks, it’s my favorite too。

3。praise upgrade Really brings out the blue in my eyes, doesn't it?

4。comment history I bought it for the trip to Arizona

5。reassignment My brother gave it to me。

6。return So is yours。

Nonagreement 7。scale down It’s really quite old。

8。question Do you really think so?

9。disagreement I hate it。

10。qualification It’s all right, but Len’s is nicer。