Pretty Is As Pretty Does: A Speech Act View of Sex Roles

Earlier work on complimenting behavior among Mc American Eng speakers is reviewed. A considerable amount of syntactic & semantic patterning in these exchanges has been found. Distinct differences in the kinds & amount of compliments offered to women, & the situations in which they are of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied linguistics 1984-01, Vol.5 (3), p.236-244
Main Author: Wolfson, Nessa
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Earlier work on complimenting behavior among Mc American Eng speakers is reviewed. A considerable amount of syntactic & semantic patterning in these exchanges has been found. Distinct differences in the kinds & amount of compliments offered to women, & the situations in which they are offered, as opposed to compliments offered to men, have been widely noted. It is argued that compliments serve as a means of expressing "approval or encouragement of socially accepted role behavior" & that even professional women are therefore open to frequent compliments about their appearance, clothing, etc, because this relates to their role as Fs. A general absence of constraints on complimenting women (topic, context, etc) is examined. 1 Figure, 15 References. B. Annesser Murray
ISSN:0142-6001
1477-450X
DOI:10.1093/applin/5.3.236