Introducció. Els metges d'atenció primària infraestimem en general el compliment dels nostres pacients quan els donem un tractament farmacològic. Si els fàrmacs no s'utilitzen de forma escaient els seus beneficis es perden.Objectiu. Conèixer el grau de compliment dels nostres pacients hipercolesterolèmics al cap d'un mes de donar una estatina i validar distints mètodes indirectes de càlcul de compliment per conèixer quin és el que s'ajusta més al compliment real del pacient. Disseny. Estudi prospectiu observacional.Àmbit d'estudi. Atenció primària de salut.Subjectes. 271 pacients pertanyents a 14 contingents de quatre centres d'atenció primària diferents, a qui s'havien diagnosticat d'hipercolesterolèmia i eren tributaris de tractament farmacològic amb una estatina. A tots ells es va demanar consentiment informat encara que no se'ls va explicar exactament l'objectiu real de l'estudi. Mesuraments i intervencions. Es va efectuar visita domiciliària 1-3 dies abans de finalitzar la capsa d'estatina en el que es va avaluar el recompte de comprimits. Es va considerar complidor aquell pacient amb una presa del 80-110% de les dosis prescrites. S'analitzaren els següents paràmetres: edat, sexe, hipertensió arterial, diabetis, risc cardiovascular, polifarmàcia (presa de més de cinc medicaments distints concomitantment), analítica abans i un mes després d'haver administrat una estatina (colesterol total, colesterol-LDL, colesterol-HDL, triglicèrids i enzims hepàtics). 4 metges van lliurar en el moment de la prescripció de l'estatina un full explicatiu de com prendre-se-la i 10 no. En la visita domiciliària es va preguntar endemés pel compliment autocomunicat, test de Morisky-Green modificat i un test de coneixements amb 3 preguntes. S'utilitzaren proves de khi quadrat, t d'Student-Fisher, anàlisi de la variància, correlacions i paràmetres de validació, tot considerant significació estadística quan p<0,05. Resultats. S'exclogueren 7 pacients per no poder fer visita al domicili, quedant 264, amb una edat mitjana de 63,4 ± 10,7 anys i un 56,8% de dones. 111 pacients presentaren un recompte de comprimits < 80% (42% d'incompliment). El percentatge de compliment va ser millor entre els que es donà el full explicatiu (80,8%), els que presentaren una disminució del colesterol-LDL > 24% (74,1%) i els que presentaren malaltia cardiovascular (71,4%). El mètode indirecte que millor predigué l'incompliment fou el test de Morisky-Green modificat. La utilització de dues preguntes d'aquest test (1. Tots oblidem de prendre-nos totes les pastilles que ens donen; ha oblidat algun cop de prendre's el medicament que li han prescrit per baixar el colesterol? i 2. Si algun cop li ha sentat malament, ha deixat Vostè de prendre-se-la?) predigué molt bé l'incompliment del pacient (sensibilitat 94,6%, especificitat 96,1%), que millorà en afegir una pregunta de coneixements: "L'objectiu del tractament no és tant reduir els nivells de colesterol sinó més aviat reduir el risc de malaltia cardiovascular"; en cas de contestar incorrectament alguna d'aquestes tres preguntes, la sensibilitat en la predicció d'incompliment va ser del 97,3% i l'especificitat, del 96,1%.Conclusions. És important emprar mètodes simples en la consulta per tal de predir si els nostres pacients segueixen o no les nostres recomanacions. En base als resultats assolits en aquest treball, en cas de donar una estatina, la resposta incorrecta a qualsevol d'una combinació de 3 preguntes aconsegueix predir molt bé un possible incompliment del pacient, la qual cosa fa que la seva aplicació en la nostra pràctica assistencial sigui realment útil. Mots clau: Compliment, adherència, estatina, hipercolesterolèmia, test de Morisky-Green / Background. Awareness of patients' adherence is generally low among primary healthcare physicians when they are given a drug. If drugs are not used appropriately their benefits disappear. Aim. To determine the compliance rate of patients diagnosed of hypercholesterolemia at the end of the first month of a statin therapy and validate several indirect methods of drug-compliance in order to know which of them fit more closely with the actual compliance of the patient. Design. Observational prospective survey.Setting of the study. Primary health care.Subjects. 271 patients belonging to 14 practices of four primary health care centres who were diagnosed of hypercholesterolemia and were susceptible to drug therapy with a statin. Informed consent were asked for even though the true aim of the survey was not accurately explained to them. Measurements and interventions. Visits at home one to three days before ending up the statin were performed in which counting of pills was assessed. Patients who had between 80 and 110% compliance were defined as compliant. The following parameters were analysed: age, gender, high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular risk, polipharmacy (more than five different drugs taken simultaneously), analysis before and after the first month of drug therapy (total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and hepatic enzymes). 4 physicians gave simultaneously an explanatory sheet about how to take the statin and the other 10, did not. Furthermore, patients were asked about communication of self-compliance, modified Morisky-Green test and a test of knowledge with 3 questions. Chi-square, Student t, variance analysis, correlations, and validation parameters were used, considering p-values < 0.05 as statistically significant. Results. 7 subjects were rejected because of no possibility to go to their homes, considering a total number of 264, with a mean age of 63.4 ± 10,7 yr. and 56.8% of women. 111 patients had a pill counting less than < 80% (42% of non-compliance). Compliance rate was better among those individuals who were given the explanatory sheet (80.8%), those who had a reduction of LDL-cholesterol more than 24% (74.1%) and those who had active cardiovascular disease (71.4%). The indirect method that best predicted the non-compliance status was the modified Morisky-Green test. The utilization of two questions of this test (1. We all forget to take the pills, have you forgotten to take any cholesterol-decreasing pill?, and 2. If you were once upset, have you given up taking a pill?) predicted very well the non-compliance status of the patient (sensitivity 94.6%, specificity 96.1%), that improved when a question of knowledge was added: "The aim of the treatment rather than decrease the level of cholesterol is reduce the cardiovascular risk". In case of a wrong answer to any of these questions, the sensitivity to predict non-compliance status was 97.3% and specificity 96.1%.Conclusions. The use of simple methods in the practice in order to predict if our patients adhere to our recommendations is really important. On the basis of the results of this survey, in case of a statin therapy, the wrong answer to any of a 3-question questionnaire predicts very well patient's non-compliance; so its introduction in the practice could be useful. Key words: Compliance, adherence, statin, hypercholesterolemia, Morisky-Green test

This dissertation is a sociolinguistic investigation into the system of the speech act of complimenting among young Japanese. Sociolinguistic studies on complimenting have been rather extensively carried out in Western academic discourse since the 1980s. The rapid development of this field went hand in hand with the existing growing body of work on speech acts, linguistic politeness and language and gender studies, all fields which came to flourish during the 1960s-80s. The speech act of complimenting has so far been overwhelmingly regarded as one of the most obvious positive politeness strategies (Brown & Levinson 1987; Holmes 1995) and also as a feminised sociolinguistic practice (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 2003; Herbert 1990). However, the sociolinguistic examination of complimenting in non- Western speech communities remains less well investigated. This dissertation challenges some traditional premises about the nature of this speech act and explores how sociolinguists should go about analysing this variable in the context of a non-Western speech community. In so doing, I highlight that applying localized cultural knowledge plays a crucial role in unfolding the social and linguistic systems of complimenting in a Japanese speech community. The analysis presented here draws on a corpus consisting of more than 40 hours of recordings with 67 young Japanese university students, collected through ethnographic techniques. Fieldwork was conducted for over a year in order to obtain these data in southern Japan (namely, Kumamoto and Oita prefectures). A total of 369 compliment utterances within 143 compliment sequences were extracted and transcribed from this corpus. To achieve a satisfying sociolinguistic understanding of this speech act, the data are analysed with a combination of both the qualitative methods of discourse analysis and the quantitative methods of variationist sociolinguistics. This dissertation brings much needed discussions of this variable situated within non-Western contexts and hence makes significant contribution to the field, by adding new perspectives and findings about complimenting behaviour. On the one hand, my work found some regularity in compliments which parallel the findings of previous studies. This itself is a new insight in the field of compliments studies, namely, that there are crossculturally (if not universally) pervasive properties of complimenting. On the other hand, this study highlighted some originality in this speech act among the young Japanese. The construction and application of compliments in the case of Japanese substantially manifest its complex and intricate sociolinguistic system, which my dissertation is dedicated to describing through the naturally occurring data of spoken Japanese.

The working alliance has received consistent empirical support relating the construct to psychotherapy outcome. There is no empirical research on any particular techniques that may prove useful at increasing the level of working alliance. In this study, the therapeutic compliment is defined, discussed, and compared with other therapeutic interventions to find its usefulness in therapy and its ability to impact the working alliance. 120 African-Americans from a large southwestern university and a medium southeastern university participated in this study by viewing one of six mock therapy sessions that had one of three different interventions: Therapeutic Compliment, Simple Compliment, and Advanced Accurate Empathy. The mock sessions were created to provide two levels of session relationship (high and low). The participants completed three measures, the Working Alliance Inventory, Hopefulness Scale, and Accurate Empathy Scale, to determine the perceptions of the different interventions. The study utilized multiple analyses of variances (ANOVAs) to compare the means of the three interventions.Statistical significance was not found with overall general working alliance scores from the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI). The individual subscales of the WAI, goals, tasks, and bonds, however; did reveal significance when comparing the interventions across one level of the session relationship (high). The interventions were not statistically different from each other in terms of perceived hopefulness and empathy. No significance was found when comparing the interventions with perceived hopefulness of outcome or level of perceived empathy. The implications from this study include a first look at the use of complimenting in therapy and a first attempt to analyze a specific technique to create an influence on the working alliance. Further research is still needed to understand which techniques are more beneficial at creating an affect on the working alliance.

There is some evidence from scholarship that politeness norms in China are diversified. I maintain that a study aiming to provide systematic evidence of this would require an approach to politeness phenomena that is able to address such diversity. Drawing upon the insights of recent scholarship on the distinction between the modernist and postmodernist approaches to politeness, I survey relevant literature. I show that many current works on politeness argue that the modernist approach (Lakoff 1973/1975, Brown and Levinson 1987[1978], Leech 1983) generally tends to assume that society is relatively homogeneous with regard to politeness norms. By contrast, I demonstrate that the postmodernist approach to politeness (e.g. Eelen 2001, Mills 2003, Watts 2003) foregrounds the heterogeneity of society and the rich variability of politeness norms within a given culture. I argue that, by using a postmodernist approach to politeness, it is possible to show evidence of differences between groups of the Chinese in their politeness behaviour and the informing norms of politeness. I then explore this issue in depth by focusing on compliments and compliment responses (CRs). I show that studies on these speech acts in Chinese have to date tended to adopt a modernist approach to politeness and often assume a compliment and a CR to be easily identifiable. Moreover, I show that they do not address the heterogeneity of Chinese society and generally assume interactants to be homogeneous in terms of politeness norms that inform compliment and CR behaviours. On this basis, I raise the questions as to whether, by adopting a postmodernist rather than modernist approach, there is empirical evidence that politeness norms informing compliments and CRs vary among the Chinese, and whether these norms correlate with generation. v To this end, by audio-recording both spontaneous naturally occurring conversations and follow-up interviews, I construct a corpus of compliments and CRs generated by two generations of the Chinese brought up before and after the launch of China's reform. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of these data show that there is variation in compliment and CR behaviours in Chinese and the informing politeness norms. Furthermore, the result shows that this variation is correlated with generation. I then show how, by using a research methodology which emphasizes the interactants' perceptions obtained through follow-up interviews, my study brings to light problems with previous studies on compliments and CRs which hitherto are not addressed. By showing evidence that compliments and CRs are not as easy to identify as many previous researchers have indicated. I argue that my emic approach to data analysis provides a useful perspective on the complexity of intention in studies on speech acts and perhaps beyond. My study, therefore, makes an interesting contribution to the debate over this notion central to politeness research. Moreover, I argue my methodology which is able to categorize and analyze data according to participants' self-reported perceptions allows me to draw out differences in the two generations' compliment and CR behaviours and the informing politeness norms.

<p>The study of appropriateness in language use is part of pragmatics, and how speakers give and respond to complements is a source of data in such studies. Compliments are strategies to explicitly or implicitly ascribe qualities that are mutually appreciated by the speaker and the addressee of a compliment. When individuals from different cultures interact in conversations, including the giving and receiving of compliments, and their behaviour is based on different conventions, it may lead to misunderstandings. Earlier studies (Cedar, 2006 & Sharifian, 2005, 2008) suggest that pragmatic transfer can cause cross-cultural misunderstanding. Second language users seem to transfer first language pragmatic rules into second language domains. This study will examine whether pragmatic transfer occurs in Swedish as first language into English as a second language in compliment responses. It will be assumed that pragmatic conventions are influenced by both linguistic and social norms. A Discourse completion task was used in order to obtain the data. The Discourse completion task consisted of one questionnaire in English, and one translated into Swedish, with situations where a compliment was given and the participant was instructed to imagine him/herself in that situation and give their most probable response to that compliment. The results showed that there was no significant difference between compliment responses given in Swedish and those given in English by native Swedish speakers. Thus, pragmatic transfer could have occurred. The Swedish participants’ compliment responses were also compared to compliment responses of Scottish English L1 speakers. The results are discussed in relation to other studies of pragmatic transfer in compliment responses, and suggestions for future research are considered.<strong> </strong></p>

The study of appropriateness in language use is part of pragmatics, and how speakers give and respond to complements is a source of data in such studies. Compliments are strategies to explicitly or implicitly ascribe qualities that are mutually appreciated by the speaker and the addressee of a compliment. When individuals from different cultures interact in conversations, including the giving and receiving of compliments, and their behaviour is based on different conventions, it may lead to misunderstandings. Earlier studies (Cedar, 2006 &amp; Sharifian, 2005, 2008) suggest that pragmatic transfer can cause cross-cultural misunderstanding. Second language users seem to transfer first language pragmatic rules into second language domains. This study will examine whether pragmatic transfer occurs in Swedish as first language into English as a second language in compliment responses. It will be assumed that pragmatic conventions are influenced by both linguistic and social norms. A Discourse completion task was used in order to obtain the data. The Discourse completion task consisted of one questionnaire in English, and one translated into Swedish, with situations where a compliment was given and the participant was instructed to imagine him/herself in that situation and give their most probable response to that compliment. The results showed that there was no significant difference between compliment responses given in Swedish and those given in English by native Swedish speakers. Thus, pragmatic transfer could have occurred. The Swedish participants’ compliment responses were also compared to compliment responses of Scottish English L1 speakers. The results are discussed in relation to other studies of pragmatic transfer in compliment responses, and suggestions for future research are considered.

This study investigates the pragmatic transfer Chinese Latter-day Saint (LDS) missionaries speaking English display when responding to compliments in English conversations. Previous studies have shown that native American English speakers have a higher rate of compliment acceptance in their compliment response (CR) strategies. While, native Chinese speakers have a higher rate of denial in their CRs (. A common research question is whether or not CR strategies transfer from a Chinese English speaker's first language (L1) into their English conversations. To measure this, 40 missionaries from the LDS church participated in naturalized role plays. Half were native Chinese (10 male, 10 female), and the other half were native American (10 male and 10 female). Each missionary participated in two role play situations, once with a male researcher and once with a female researcher. These role plays were conducted in English. In each role play the researcher complimented the participant in four areas: 1) ability, 2) native culture/hometown, 3) the LDS church, 4) a small possession (e.g. watch, tie, skirt, etc). CRs were recorded then organized on a CR continuum. A series of univariate and related measures ANOVAs was used to measure significance. Results suggest that Chinese missionaries tend to downgrade and disagree with compliments more than American missionaries. Additionally, female Chinese missionaries tend to overgeneralize using the appreciation token when responding to compliments. Other significant findings include the effect of gender and compliment topic on the missionaries' CR strategies.

Актуальность работы: Комплимент, ставший один из неотъемлемых компонентов коммуникации, постоянно совершенствуется, развивается, усложняется, расширяет свои формы бытования, свои функции и вербальные средства репрезентации. Изучение комплимента в изменяющемся, интегрирующемся мире – как благодаря прогрессу цивилизации и электронных способов общения, так и с развитием процесса глобализации – новая и актуальная тема в науке. Особенно значимой является она в лингвистике, обращенной к изучению межличностной и межкультурной коммуникации, к способам достижения эффективности общения. Цель исследования: Основной целью данной работы является исследование комплиментов в русской и китайской речевой коммуникации и выявление национально-культурной специфики русского и китайского комплимента. Объектом исследования: Китайский и русский комплименты. Задачи исследования: 1. Определить место и роль комплимента в коммуникативном акте общения. 2. Анализ принципов и целей комплимента. 3. Проанализировать особенности комплиментов в русском языке и в китайском языке. 4. Описать классификацию комплимента и ситуации употребления комплиментов и определить условия успешности комплимента с точки зрения прагматического подхода. 5. Проанализировать типы и особенности комплимента в китайской и русской лингвокультуре. 6. Как перевести комплимент. Практическая значимость исследования：Основной функцией комплимента является установление контакта и поддержание добрых отношений. комплимента-это контакт, цель которого-установить дружественный контакт. Функция комплимента достигается при создании отношений, привлечении собеседника, выражении добрых и добрых слов. Теоретическая значимость работы: Комплименты являются частью этикетного общения, поскольку участвуют в процедуре знакомства, приветствия, прощания，комплименты включаются в официально: деловое и дружеское общение, входят составной частью в такой еще более сложный речевой жанр, как объяснение в любви и т.д.. Исследования комплиментов имеют большое значение в лингвистических, психологических, культурных, исторических, социологических, философских, этических и эстетических дисциплинах. / Relevance of the work：A compliment that has become one of the integral components of communication is constantly being improved, developed, complicated, expanding its forms of existence, its functions and verbal means of representation. The study of compliments in a changing, integrating world - both due to the progress of civilization and electronic communication methods, and with the development of the globalization process - is a new and relevant topic in science. It is especially significant in linguistics, addressed to the study of interpersonal and intercultural communication, to ways to achieve the effectiveness of communication. The purpose of the study：The main purpose of this work is to study the compliments in the Russian and Chinese speech communication and to identify the national and cultural specifics of the Russian and Chinese compliments. Object of study：Chinese and Russian compliments. Objectives of the study: 1. To determine the place and role of the compliment in the communicative act of communication. 2. Analysis of the principles and objectives of the compliment. 3. To analyze the features of compliments in Russian and in Chinese. 4. Describe the classification of the compliment and the situation of the use of compliments and determine the conditions for success of the compliment in terms of a pragmatic approach. 5. To analyze the types and features of the compliment in the Chinese and Russian linguistic culture. 6. How to translate a compliment. The practical significance of the study：The main function of the compliment is to establish contact and maintain good relations. A compliment is a contact whose purpose is to establish a friendly contact. The function of the compliment is achieved by creating relationships, attracting the interlocutor, expressing kind and kind words. Theoretical significance of the work：Compliments are part of etiquette communication, as they participate in the procedure of acquaintance, greetings, goodbyes，compliments are included in officially： business and companionship, are part of an even more complex speech genre, like an explanation of love, etc. Compliment studies are of great importance in linguistic, psychological, cultural, historical, sociological, philosophical, ethical and aesthetic disciplines.

This thesis introduces sociolinguistic phenomenon called street compliment, that has not been studied much in Czech Republic. It is a form of a comment given in public places by unacquainted persons, most commonly by men to women but not exclusively. Based in the feminist tradition the research was realized as a set of semi-structured interviews with eight female participants. The research revealed how the participants understand the phenomenon and how the heteronormative configuration of society is being perpetuated. The interpretation of street compliment as a form of a compliment is based on the discourse of female atractiveness and a strong sexual drive at males. The street compliment can be used to express sexual interest, to perform masculinity or to perform identity overall. The street compliment as a display of masculine behaviour towards a legitimate target, that is to say attractive woman, refers to the use of street compliment as a mean of disciplination of female subjects. The participants agreed that they do not utter street compliments because of its convenience. Instead they would express their interest in a group of friends without exteriorizing it. On one side the participants create subversive discourses, however it is common to observe symbolic violence done to them, amongs other...

The present study aimed to find out which compliment response types Saudi learners of English would use in particular situations within an academic context and to identify possible cultural and gender differences in the compliment responses between Saudi learners of English and native speakers of American English. In order to examine the two main variables of the present study, which were cultural and gender differences, the study used a Multiple Choice Discourse Completion Task (MDCT). The instrument included four imaginary written situations related to an academic context. Specifically, the first two scenarios involved a compliment on student achievement by a male and a female professor. In the third and fourth scenarios, the compliment was offered by a male and a female classmate, respectively. The compliment response types were based on Herbert's (1990) taxonomy. The participants included 104 American native speakers and 71 Saudi English speakers, all of them enrolled at a US university. The analysis of the data involved calculating descriptive statistics and multiple chi-square tests to elicit possible differences between native and non-native in each situation. Descriptive statistics were used to provide a detailed description of the results in terms of percentages. In addition, the value of Phi was calculated for each chi-square test in order to provide further evidence about the effect size of the observed differences. Overall, the results for the comparisons of cultural differences revealed that there were more similarities than differences between the American and Saudi participants in their compliment responses in all four situations. Furthermore, the results of the gender comparisons showed that there were more gender differences within the American sample than within the Saudi one. The lack of or very small number of cultural and gender differences was attributed to the fact that the majority of the Saudi participants had spent a substantial amount of time in the US and were all enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs at a US university. Another speculation that emerges based on the results of this study is that the similarities between the Saudi and American students, and the male and female participants, could be attributed to the changing definition of culture in the present day globalized world. Particularly, it appears that cultural differences may be fading away, especially among the younger generations, under the influence of globalization, advanced technology, and the Internet.