A DISCOURSE EXAMINATION OF COMPLIMENT RESPONSE STRATEGIES OF TURKISH PEOPLE

Vollständiger Abstract

Worum geht es in dieser Arbeit?

This study aims to investigate the compliment response strategies employed by Turkish people. The analysis also examines the relations of gender and the level of formality in the compliment response strategies employed by Turkish-speaking individuals. For this purpose, data were collected from 100 Turkish participants, comprising 50 women and 50 males. A written discourse completion task consisting of 10 scenarios (five formal and five informal) was used to obtain data on participants' compliment response strategies. The collected data were first subjected to discourse analysis, strategies were assessed based on Herbert’s taxonomy of compliment responses, and subsequently, the relationship of gender and formality on the utilization of compliment response strategies was examined. Second, a qualitative analysis was conducted, and the replies were thematically categorized to identify trends within each analogous group of reactions to each scenario. The results of the study show that the Turkish individuals predominantly exhibit a propensity to accept compliments and respond courteously with minimal differences between female and male participants regarding the utilization of CR strategies. The results also demonstrate that the predominant approach employed by Turkish individuals in response to compliments is to acknowledge the praise by explicitly expressing gratitude in both formal and informal situations.