CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study that focuses on the meaning of the utterances

in which the meaning is influenced by many contexts. As stated by Yule

(1996: 3), pragmatics is concerned with the study of the meaning as

communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by the listener (or the

reader). Moreover, Thomas (1995: 1) defines that pragmatics deals with

meaning in use or meaning in context. Consequently, pragmatics is more

concerned with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than

what the words or phrases in those utterances might mean by themselves.

According to Levinson (1997: 24), context plays essential role in

language by stating that pragmatics is the study of the relationship between

language and context. Meanwhile, Mallinowski (as quoted in Kramsch, 1998)

states that there are two types of context, namely context of situation and

context of culture. Context of situation is the context in which the speech is

uttered which includes participants involved in speech, time, place, and social

environment. Whereas, context of culture is the cultural background behind

the participants.

To sum, it can be pointed out that language (meaning) and context

(interaction) are close-knit which those aspects are the main study in

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Pragmatics. Therefore, in understanding the meaning of the addresser‟s

utterance, the addressers are necessary to pay attention to the context around

the happening of the conversation, including context of situation and context

of culture where the speech happens.

B. Speech Act

B.1 The Definition of Speech Act

Speech act is a part of Pragmatic study which focuses its study on the

act performed by a speaker in uttering sentences. Those speech acts are

commonly given more specific labels such as apology, complaint,

compliment, invitation, promise, or request (Yule, 1996: 47). Meanwhile,

Austin (1962) in Thomas (1995: 51) uses the term speech acts refer to an

utterance and „the total situation in which the utterance is issued‟. In short, the

intended meaning behind the utterances become the main study in speech acts.

In producing an utterance, a speaker has an intention meaning in the utterance

which is recognized by the hearer based on the context of situation in which

the utterance is uttered.

Speech act theory points out that the action performed when an

utterance is produced can be analyzed on three different levels. Austin (1962:

52) states that three kinds of acts are simultaneously performed, namely:

a. Locutionary act is the literal meaning of the utterance. It is the

basic act of utterance.

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b. Illocutionary act is the act of getting the audience to recognize the

speaker‟s meaning.

c. Perlocutionary act is the actual effect such as persuading,

convincing or, otherwise, getting someone to do or realize

something whether intended or not.

The example below will give clear understanding of those definitions:

Sean : I've read your editorials in the Torch. Pretty cool!

Chloe : Thank you, Sean.

(Taken from Smallville Season 1 Episode 5)

From the example above, the act of saying “I've read your editorials in

the Torch. Pretty cool!” belongs to the locutionary act. Then, the illocutionary

act is the act of Sean complimenting Chloe. The acceptance of the compliment

“Thank you, Sean” uttered by Chloe is the perlocutionary act.

B.2 The Classification of Speech Act

Searle in Yule (1996) classifies the speech act into five types. Each of

the type describes and explains different kind of function of the speeches as

follows:

1. Declarations

Declarations are kinds of speech acts that declare something

using words. It has a function to change the status of the hearer. To

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perform the declarations act, the speaker has to have special

institutional role in such particular context to be able to change

someone‟s status by utterance, such as “I declare”, “I pronounce”. For

example:

Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife.

The umpire of badminton: Service over!

2. Representatives

Representatives are the kinds of speech acts that commit the

speaker to express the proposition truthfully. This act has a function to

describe state or event. In using these acts, the speaker makes words to

fit the world of belief. Representatives cover statements of fact,

assertions, conclusions, and descriptions. For example:

Whitney : The rain was coming down so hard, I could not see if

Donner was open so I figured ---

Coach Walt: You will do as I say because I know what‟s best for you!

You do not have to see Donner to know where he is. Just throw it to

him.

(Taken from Smallville Season 1 Episode 3)

From the example above, the utterance belongs to

representative as stating since Whitney commits the truth of what is

asserted. In this case, the game match happens on the heavy rains. It

makes problem for Whitney and his friends. Then, he says the

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statements of fact to Coach Walt based on the context around

happening.

3. Expressives

This speech acts express the speaker‟s attitude and emotion

(feeling). Besides, they can be in the form of pleasure, joy, dislike,

like, sorrow, pleasure, or pain. The examples of speech act which are

included in expressive are complimenting, complaining,

congratulating, thanking, apologizing, refusing, etc. For example:

Lex : Glad to see business is booming.

Lana : It is hard when even your regular customers blow you off.

Lex : I have not been blowing you off, Lana. I have had my eye on

the situation.

(Taken from Smallville Season 1 Episode 18)

From the example above, the utterance belongs to expressive

as a complimenting. Lex opens conversation with Lana by uttering

compliment. The Talon, or Lana‟s coffee shop, is filled by Whitney‟s

friends of baseball team. It is because Whitney forces them to visit the

Talon. Therefore, Lex opens a conversation based on the situation

happens.

4. Directives

In this speech acts, the utterances said by the speaker to get

someone else to do something for him or her. The directives act also

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show that the speaker‟s intention is. This includes commanding,

requesting, ordering, and questioning. For example:

Phelan : See, Metropolis keeps blueprints on all high-security

buildings in the city, so I know this place better than the

architect. The security system all runs through this junction

box. Open it up.

Clark : Is it alarmed?

(Taken from Smallville Season 1 Episode 9)

From the example above, the utterance belongs to directive as

a request. Phelan wants to steals ten million dollars worth of jewels in

the Metropolis Museum through support from Clark‟s power. The

utterance shows that Phelan attempts Clark to fulfill what his want in

opening the iron box in order to disable the security system.

5. Commisives

Commisive acts are kinds of speech acts that commit the

speaker to say some future actions. This expresses what the speaker

intends to do in the future. The examples of these acts are promising,

pledging and threatening. For example:

Sean : I'll call you tomorrow, I promise.

Chloe : Well, I won‟t hold my breath.

(Taken from Smallville Season 1 Episode 5)

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From the example above, the utterance belongs to commisive

as a promising. It is obvious because there is performative verb

promise which indicates commisive speech acts.

C. Ethnography of Speaking

Ethnography of speaking or, more generally, the ethnography of

communication deals with the use of language in general related to social and

cultural values. Hymes in Fasold (1996) defines that the ethnography of

speaking is concerned with the situation in uses, the patterns and functions, of

speaking as an activity in its own right. Hymes gives suggestion that in

ethnography of speaking including some components of speech which need to

be considered. They are speech situations, speech events, and speech acts.

Speech acts are part of speech events, which are, in turn, part of speech

situation.

Hymes (in Fasold 1996: 44) has suggested the component of speech

which is labeled with the one of the letters of the word “SPEAKING”. They

are as follows:

a. Situation (S)

Situation includes the setting and the scene. The setting refers to the

concrete physical circumstances where speech takes places, including time

and place. Meanwhile, scene refers to the abstract psychological setting or

the cultural definition of the occasion. It may be formal or informal,

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serious of festive. For example, the seating arrangement of a meeting

room, whether it is in straight rows or in a circle, may signal the

appropriate level of formality.

b. Participants (P)

The participants include combinations of speaker-listener, addresser-

addressee, or sender-receiver. They generally fill certain specific roles. It

deals with who is speaking and who are they speaking to. Their presence

in communicative event may influence on what is said and how it is said.

Each of them has his/her own behavior toward language and language

choice according to the social and culture factor.

The description of participants includes not only their characteristics, but

also their background information such as age, gender, social class, status,

background, and so on. The style of dress of participants may also be a

determiner of their communicative behavior. For example, people will talk

more formally to one wearing a formal dress rather than to one in a sporty

dress.

c. Ends (E)

Ends of a speech event are divided into outcome and goal. Outcome refers

to the purpose of the event from a cultural point of view, e.g. trade,

business, contract, interview, etc. Meanwhile, goal refers to the purpose of

the individual participants. For example, the goal of seller in bargaining

event is to maximize the price, while the customers want to minimize it.

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d. Act Sequence (A)

Act Sequence discusses the message of an event. It comprises message

form and message content. Message form refers to how thing is said by

the participants. Meanwhile, message content deals with what participants

talk about; it is simply called as a topic of a conversation. Furthermore,

the topic of a conversation can determine how close the participants to

each other. For example, individual does not normally ask strangers their

age, marital status, or salary in the first meeting in America or English.

Both message form and message content involved communicative skills

that vary from one culture to another. Speakers should know how to

formulate speech events and speech acts in their culture appropriately.

e. Key (K)

Key refers to the tone, manner, or spirit in which a speech act is

performed, whether it is serious, mocking, sarcastic, and so on. Key also

refers to the feeling, atmosphere, and attitude. Furthermore, the key may

be marked by non-verbal action such as wink, smile, gesture, or posture.

Key plays an important part in affecting the use of language. For example,

one might show his/her annoyance by speaking with rude words in a high

tone and bad manner.

The aspect of key is as follows:

1. Tone refers to the general spirit of the scene such as angry, afraid,

brave, etc.

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2. Manner refers to the participant‟s way of behaving toward others,

whether it is polite, impolite, formal, informal, serious, mocking, etc.

3. Feeling refers to emotion indicating happiness, shock, anger, anxiety,

etc.

4. Atmosphere refers to the feeling that affects the mind in a place or

condition, such as good, evil, etc.

5. Attitude refers to the participants‟ ways of thinking and behaving

toward a situation whether it is sympathetic, pessimistic, etc.

f. Instrumentalities (I)

Instrumentalities refer to channel and form of speech. Channel means the

way a message travels from one person to another whether by oral or

written. Message can also be transmitted by such means as telegraph,

semaphore, smoke signal, or drumming. Meanwhile, the form of speech

refers to language and their subdivision, dialect, codes, varieties, and

register.

g. Norms (N)

Norms include norms of interaction and norms of interpretation. Norms of

interaction refer to non-linguistic rules of when, how, and how often

speech occurs in the community. Norms of interpretation are determined

by the culture of the community. Norms of interaction involves trying to

implicate the belief system of a community. Interpretation involves trying

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to understand what is being conveyed beyond what is in the actual words

used.

h. Genre (G)

Genre refers the type of communicative event such as poems, myths,

jokes, lectures, sermons, editorials, and so on. Genre is performed for

specific purposes in specific places with particular participants. For

example, the lecturer as a genre is typically identified with a certain place

in a course. The lecturers and the students as the participants may be

involved in serious or humorous effect in other situation.

D. Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

Direct and indirect speech acts are concerned with how the speaker

delivers his or her utterance, whether it is directly uttered or indirectly. Yule

(1996) has explained the differences between direct and indirect speech as

follows:

D.1 Direct Speech Act

Direct speech act occurs when there is a direct relationship between a

function and its structure. It is blatantly uttered by the speaker as there is no

indirectness. For example:

a. Lionel : Now, where do I sign? (declarative)

b. Farmer : Right here, Mr. Luthor. (interrogative)

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c. Lex : Help me! (imperative)

(Taken from Smallville Season 1 Episode 1)

In (a) Lionel asks a question to the farmer where he signs. In (b) the

farmer makes a statement that Lionel can sign in his instruction. In (c) Lex

commands the hearer to help him. As a result, the examples above explains

that direct speech act express intention literally and explicitly in order to make

the hearer understand easily.

D.2 Indirect Speech Act

An indirect speech act occurs when there is an indirect relationship

between structure and its function. It contains implicit meaning and it is not

blatantly said by the speaker. For example:

Nell : Lana, are you still out-- Clark. Do you have the time?

Clark : No. But I'm guessing it's late.

(Taken from Smallville Season 1 Episode 10)

The utterance Do you have the time? covers indirect speech act. Nell

expresses her intention implicitly. It conveys the meaning I hope you realize

what time is. As a result, it embodies the function of a wish that must not be

obligated by the hearer.

E. Kinesics

According to Chaika (1994: 124), kinesics is the study of body motion

in which it refers to the silent language or non-verbal communication. It

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means that kinesics deals with all matters of interaction which is not carried

out by actual words. The basic repertoires of kinesics are body language, eye

contact, facial expression, gazing, postures, touching, and proxemics.

Every human may use the same kinesics but every social group has

different rules for using those repertoires. It can be said that kinesics conveys

specific meaning and many interpretation. The interpretation of kinesics in

order to understand the meaning is also different; it depends on the culture of

its society. As stated by Chaika (1994: 123), different interpretations on the

same repertoire of kinesics may cause misunderstanding and cross-cultural

difficulties. The following examples are the repertoire of kinesics proposed by

Chaika (1994: 124-141) which is explained as follows:

a. Body Language

Body language is a way of non-verbal communication. In the daily

conversation, people tend to combine their conversation by using non-

verbal communication. It is difficult to talk without body language

because human expressive movements are linked to emotional expression.

For the example is eyebrow lifting. It may mean yes, indicate recognition,

or express flirting. This interpretation is not always the same between one

culture to the other culture.

b. Smiles

One of the basic human repertoires is smile. There are many kinds of

smiles for some different purposes. Sly smile, friendly smile, sick smile,

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skeptical smile, derisive and grin are the example of the way of smiling. In

showing greeting, some culture demand a wide smile and teeth showing.

But, it is not always the same to the other culture. Others may greet people

with close-mouthed smile. The situation that emerge smile and its kind of

smiles seems to be culturally demined.

c. Proxemics

Proxemics is the study of humankind‟s perception and use of space. It is

important to the participants to know the correct patterns for their society

by learning how near or far to stand from those with whom they are

conversing. The decision of how far or near distant of the participant

depend on who they are speaking to. Normal distant between speakers

varies from one culture to others.

d. Eye Contact

Eye contact is one of the most important things in the conversation. Eye

contact varies in frequency and length. There is gaze, stare, looking away,

and so on. Eye contact is also used for several purposes. It depends on the

culture, sexes, age group and status. In an interaction the subordinate

person look at the superior more than the superior look at the subordinate

person. Looking to the superior is a way of getting approval, of measuring

the effect they are having on the one whom they wish to please. For

example, a student tends to look at their teacher which means that he/she

respect and pay attention to the teacher‟s speaking seriously.

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e. Touching

Every culture has the own degree of touching in the social interaction. The

example of touching is handshaking. In the interaction, handshaking

indicates solidarity between the participants. In some particular situation,

touching between adults can indicate sexuality. Touching gives strong

message about power, solidarity, and intimacy.

F. Compliment

F.1 Definition of Compliment

Compliment as speech act, is classified as expressive

expression (Yule, 1996: 53). In most speech communities, the speech

act of complimenting is intended to make others feel good. According

to (Holmes, 2003: 177), compliment is a speech act which explicitly or

implicitly attributes credit to someone other than the speaker, usually

the person addressed, for some good (possession, character, skill, etc)

which is positively valued by the speaker and the hearer.

Wolfson (in Wolfson and Judd, 1983: 90) states that in general;

compliment requires adjectives to express the speaker‟s positive

evaluation. The most frequent adjectives used in compliments are

beautiful, pretty, and great. Compliment also frequently uses verbs to

carry positive evaluation such as like and love as the frequent verbs

that it applies in compliment. Meanwhile, in a few compliments which

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do not make use of an adjective or verb, positive evaluations are

carried by noun (e.g. genius, angel, etc) or adverb well. Moreover,

Ishihara (2011) defines that giving compliments is a way to build up

friendship, which means enhance the level of solidarity. Compliments

also serve as a crucial technique to open a conversation and set a

comfortable ambience for any social interaction.

Furthermore, Wolfson (in Wolfson & Judd, 1983: 97) states

that since compliment is used in the daily interaction, it has different

functions behind the compliment expression expressed by the speaker.

In addition, a sincere compliment delivered by the speaker will

represent a social strategy in which the function is to create or

maintain relationship with the addressee of the compliment. It also can

be said that there is a reason for the speaker to choose an appropriate

compliment. It may be caused of the appearance, possession, and

ability.

F.2 Types of Topics of Compliment

According to Wolfson (in Wolfson & Judd, 1983: 90), the topics

of compliments are divided into two major categories, namely appearance

and ability. The explanations are as follows:

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a. Topic of Appearance

The topic of appearance deals with the outer look of

appearance or performance of the compliment addressee. The

compliment topic that deals with appearance is divided into two types,

personal appearance and possession. The explanations are as follows:

1. Personal appearance

The topic of personal appearance deals with physical appearance

and apparel.

Physical appearance refers to the addressees‟ personal trait such as

hairstyle, make up, and other aspects of the part of body.

Example: I love your new hair.

You really look adorable.

The compliment on apparel refers to the things on what the

addressees are wearing such as jewelry, clothing, and so on.

Example: That‟s an elegant necklace.

Your dress is so beautiful.

2. Possession

The topic of possession deals with material possession and

favorable comment.

The topic of possession on the addressees‟ material possession is

directly to deliver compliment on the addressees‟ material

possession.

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Example: This is your engagement party. Isn‟t that crazy? It‟s so

beautiful.

There are also favorable comments on something that appear to

parallel comments concerning possession.

Example: A: Is this about the diary again?

B: What diary?

A: Your diary proved very interesting to read.

B: You read my journal?

b. Topic of Ability

Topic of ability deals with someone‟s capability in certain occasion.

The compliment topic that deals with ability is divided into two types,

general ability and specific-act ability. The explanations are as

follows:

1. General ability

The compliment on general ability includes categorical reference to

skills, talents, personal qualities, and tastes.

Example: You do this kind of writing so well.

You are so good man.

What delicious food it was!

2. Specific-act ability

Specific-act ability contains all compliments in the situation in

which the specific-acts are done.

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Example: I think it is so amazing what you are doing.

You really did a good job. That‟s fantastic.

F.3 The Functions of Compliment

According to Wolfson (in Wolfson and Judd, 1983), the

compliments have many functions since they are useful to use in the

social community. Thus, compliments may play different roles on

different occasions in social interaction. Wolfson (in Wolfson and

Judd, 1983) defines several functions of compliments as follows:

a. Compliments serve to increase and consolidate solidarity between the

speaker and the addressee.

Example: Context: Two best friends who are meeting in the lobby of

mall.

A : “Hi. You look great.”

B : “Thanks.”

b. Compliments may function as a social lubricant to create or maintain

the rapport.

Example: “First impression, you are a nice person.”

c. Compliments as a spontaneous expression of admiration and / or

approval.

Example: “I really like your appearance.”

“You look wonderful.”

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d. Compliments function to express positive evaluation.

The adjective such as nice and good are frequently used to express the

positive evaluation.

Example: “This is very good work.”

“You made good cakes.”

e. Compliments may function as encouragement.

Compliment may be used to motivate and encourage others.

Example: “You can do better, because you are the best of them.”

f. Compliments may often serve to strengthen or even replace other

speech act formulas like thanks, apologize, and greetings.

Example: “Thank you so much, this is the best present ever!”

“It‟s nice to see you.”

g. Compliments can be used to soften criticism.

This strategy is used to keep the harmony among the addresser and the

addressee. Thus, compliments are usually followed by but or tough

and a criticism.

Example: “I admire the effort, but I have to decline.”

h. Compliments may be used to modify the sarcasm.

It is also called as the left-handed compliment. A comment structured

in the form of compliment may quite easily turn into an insult.

Example: “You play a good football game for a woman.”

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Furthermore, Noriko Ishihara (as quoted in Ishihara, 2003) sums up a

variety of reasons of using compliments in American English:

1. To express admiration or approval of someone‟s work/

appearance/ taste (Manes, 1983; Herbert, 1998).

2. To establish/ confirm/ maintain solidarity (Manes & Wolfson,

1981; Wolfson, 1989).

3. To replace greetings/ gratitudes/ apologies/ congratulations

(Wolfson, 1983, 1989).

4. To soften face-threatening acts such as apologies, requests and

criticisms (Brown & Levinson, 1987; Wolfson, 1983).

5. To open and sustain conversation (conversation strategy)

(Wolfson, 1983; Billmyer, 1990; Dunham, 1992).

6. To reinforce desired behavior (Manes, 1983).

In my research, I use both theories to reveal the functions of

each compliment in the TV-series since there are many functions

suitable with Noriko Ishihara‟s summary. In addition, compliments

may serve more than one function depending on many aspects, such as

the topic of compliment, status, age, sex of the participants, and

context of the conversation itself.

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F.4 Compliment Response Strategies

According to Herbert (in McKay and Hornberger, 1996: 334),

there are twelve classification types of the compliment responses. The

explanations are as follows:

1. Appreciation token

It is verbal or nonverbal acceptance of the compliment as the

acceptance of compliment.

Verbal acceptance usually uses the expressions of thanking like thank

you, thanks, and so on.

Example: A: “That is a cool writing!”

B: “Thank you.”

Nonverbal acceptance usually shows gesture as a signal of accepts and

agrees with the compliment.

Example: A: “You are looking very smart today.”

B: (smiling)

2. Comment Acceptance

The addressee accepts the complimentary force and offers a relevant

comment on the complimented topic.

Example: A: “You are so sexy.”

B: “I know, I just have a lot coming up at work.”

3. Comment History

The addressee offers a comment on the object complimented.

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Example: A: “It is amazing you do all these different things.”

B: “Just trying to find my place in the world.”

4. Praise Upgrade (often sarcastic)

The addressee not only agrees and accepts the compliment but also

asserts that compliment force sufficiently.

Example: A: “You have really lovely taste.”

B: “Absolutely, I am a great cooker.”

5. Praise downgrade (scale down)

The addressee disagrees that the object complimented is worthy of

praise.

Example: A: “You look handsome.”

B: “Oh, come on, I am sure I look terrible, I just woke up.”

6. Reassignment

The addressee agrees with the compliment but the complimentary

force is transferred to the third person or to the object complimented.

Example: A: “You are really a good person.”

B: “My parents gave the two strongest gift to me.”

7. Return

The complimentary force is returned to the first speaker.

Example: A: “You are so pretty.”

B: “So is yours.”

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8. Request Interpretation

The addressee consciously or not, interprets the compliment as a

request rather than a simple compliment.

Example: A: “Your high heels are so great.”

B: “You can borrow them anytime.”

9. Question (Query or challenge)

The addressee questions the sincerity or the appropriateness of the

compliment.

Example: A: “You are honest and straightforward, people like you.”

B: “You see all that in me?”

10. Qualification

It is weaker than disagreement since the addressee merely qualifies the

original assertion, usually with though, but, etc.

Example: A: “It is very impressive.”

B: “It is tacky but it makes my aunt happy.”

11. Disagreement

The addressee asserts that the object complimented is not worthy of

praise.

Example: A: “You are straightforward, people like you.”

B: “No way, it is definitely not.”

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12. No Acknowledgment

The addressee gives no indication of having heard the compliment.

The addressee either responds with an irrelevant comment, e.g. topic

shift, or gives no response.

Example: A: “Your form is good, but his gait is off.”

B: “Sneaking up like that, you are lucky you did not get

kicked.”

G. Synopsis of the TV-series

Smallville is an American TV-series that is created by Alfred

Gough and Milles Millar. Smallville was released on October 16th

, 2001.

This TV-series has tenth and final seasons in which each season has

different story. In this research, it only uses episodes 1-18 of the first

season which each episode has its own storyline. The first season of this

TV-series introduces about the characters and their lives. The main

characters of this series are Clark (Tom Welling), Lana (Kristin Kreuk),

Lex (Michael Rosenbaum), Whitney (Eric Johnson), Pete (Sam Jones),

Chloe (Allison Mack), Martha (Annette O‟toole), and Jonathan (John

Schneider).

The story tells how Clark Kent struggles to find his identity until

he accepts his destiny as superman. The story is begun with the raining of

kryptonite in Smallville which ravaged the village. At the same time, the

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kryptonite escorts a big ufo in which the ufo falls in the Kent‟s field.

Jonathan Kent and Martha Kent find a baby inside the ufo. They adopt and

give his name, Clark Kent. As the growth of Clark, he realizes that he has

superman power. He is very strong, quick, and not hurt by anything.

Considering his superman power and the variety of incidents, Jonathan is

forced to reveal a secret of his origin and asks him to use his powers

responsibility. On the other hand, the raining of kryptonite changes the life

of some characters in this TV-series, such as Lana Lang which has to lose

her parents and Lex Luthor will not have hair during all of his life. The

problem arises when the kryptonite causes many bad problems. Clark has

to face the problems and keeps secret of his power. The conflict does not

stop because his friendship and his romance will be staked.

H. Review of Related Studies

Some studies about compliment expressions and their responses

have been done by previous researchers. Ikha Oktavianti (2011) examines

the compliment expressions and their responses in the film The Holiday

using Pragmatics approach. The study finds three findings in her research.

First, there are four types of topics of compliments, namely personal

appearance, possession, general ability, and specific-act ability. Second,

there are six functions of compliment: to affirm solidarity, to create or

maintain rapport, to express admiration or approval, to encourage, to

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express positive evaluation, and to strengthen or to replace other speech

act formulas. Third, there are six types of compliment responses;

acceptance, request reassurance, return compliment back, comment on the

history of referent, scale down the compliment, and give no

acknowledgment. The researcher of the study only examines the types of

topics of compliment, the functions of compliment, and the responses of

compliment. The study does not discuss American‟s culture in delivering

compliment.

Another study with a pragmatics approach is done by Dwi

Astaningdyah (2012). She analyzes the types of compliments topic and

their responses to compliments in the film Kung fu Panda. Based on the

research, there are three types of compliment‟s topic delivered by the

characters in the film Kung fu Panda, namely general ability (talent, skill,

and personal quality), specific-act ability, and material possession.

Meanwhile, there are five types of compliment responses, namely

appreciation token, no acknowledgment, praise upgrade, praise

downgrade, and request interpretation. The research also presents the

factors which influence the choice of strategy to respond compliment.

These factors are the situation in the conversation, the status between the

addresser and the addressee, agreement or disagreement of the

compliment, and the intention of the addressee in delivering the

compliment response.

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Other study which focuses on the types of topics of compliment

used by the characters, the functions of compliment, and the types of

responses to compliment is done by Yossy Erviana (2013). She analyzes

compliment expressions and their responses in the film entitled

Bridesmaids. The results reveal that there are four types of topics of

compliments, namely personal appearance, possession, general ability,

and specific-act ability. Furthermore, there are nine types of compliment

functions: to express admiration or approval, to open and sustain

conversation, to increase and consolidate solidarity, to express positive

evaluation, as encouragement, to strengthen or to replace other speech act

formulas, as a social lubricant, to modify sarcasm, and to soften criticism.

Meanwhile, there are nine types of compliment responses which are

applied by the addressers based on Herbert‟s theory, namely appreciation

token, comment acceptance, comment history, praise upgrade, praise

downgrade, return, question, disagreement, and no acknowledgment. This

study also examines about the culture of Americans in giving the

compliments. The results are smiling and looking at the addressee is the

culture of Americans while giving a compliment. For Americans, looking

at the addressee‟s face while talking is a must to show respect, while the

smile is used to show the sincerity of their compliment to the addressee.

However, the study only reveals two type of American culture in

delivering compliment.

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Since the data of this study have all types of compliments and their

responses in various ways, the aim of this research is to reveal deeply

about the description of types of compliments and types of responses to

compliment. Moreover, the characters in the TV-series also show the ways

of culture of Americans. The researcher also examines Americans culture

of delivering the compliment in other ways from the previous study.

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