The purposes of this study were (1) to determine the relationship between recitation in the classroom and changes in the cardiac rate, (2) to determine the effects on cardiac rate of anticipation of recitation and tests, (3) to determine the effects on cardiac rate of compliments and assurance directed toward students by the teacher, and (4) to determine the effects on the cardiac rate of verbal threats and ridicule.

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.

<p>This essay is to find out how men and women use compliments in English conversations in TV-series. The compliments will be analyzed as to their frequency, form topic and function.</p>

The effects of a video-modeling intervention, given to five children with autism while playing kickball, were evaluated through a multiple-baseline design across subjects. The researcher targeted two social skills, verbal compliments and appropriate gestures, using the iPad as a portable video device to model the desired behaviors in situ, on second base mid-game. Children were required to verbally and non-verbally compliment their peers during the kickball games. After presented the video clip, children showed rapid mastery of the verbal complimenting skills, and displayed an increased but less profound number of gestures displayed in the intervention phase.

Cultural differences in compliments were examined across five studies. The results are consistent with cultural differences in self-enhancement and self-criticism and suggest that compliment responses may reflect underlying differences in self-views. Asian golfers were less accepting and more rejecting of compliments about a tournament win than European golfers (Study 1). Cultural differences in responses to compliments about close others were found to mirror those about the self. Asian Canadian mothers were less accepting and more rejecting of compliments about their children than were European Canadian mothers (Study 2). Study 3 examined cultural differences in response to compliments that focus on natural ability (person-praise) versus those that focus on effort (process-praise). European Canadians were more accepting and less rejecting of person-praise compliments about their basketball shooting ability than Asian Canadians, whereas no differences were found in responses to process-praise compliments. Cultural differences in giving compliments were examined using both cultural artifacts (Study 4) and self-report (Study 5). The results are consistent with previous research on differences in implicit theories of ability. Chinese graduation cards contained more process- than person-praise compliments, whereas the reverse was true of American cards (Study 4). Chinese parents indicated that they would be more likely to select and Chinese students indicated that they would be more likely to receive graduation card messages containing process- versus person-praise compliments (Study 5). American parents and students showed no effects of type of compliment.

Cultural differences in compliments were examined across five studies. The results are consistent with cultural differences in self-enhancement and self-criticism and suggest that compliment responses may reflect underlying differences in self-views. Asian golfers were less accepting and more rejecting of compliments about a tournament win than European golfers (Study 1). Cultural differences in responses to compliments about close others were found to mirror those about the self. Asian Canadian mothers were less accepting and more rejecting of compliments about their children than were European Canadian mothers (Study 2). Study 3 examined cultural differences in response to compliments that focus on natural ability (person-praise) versus those that focus on effort (process-praise). European Canadians were more accepting and less rejecting of person-praise compliments about their basketball shooting ability than Asian Canadians, whereas no differences were found in responses to process-praise compliments. Cultural differences in giving compliments were examined using both cultural artifacts (Study 4) and self-report (Study 5). The results are consistent with previous research on differences in implicit theories of ability. Chinese graduation cards contained more process- than person-praise compliments, whereas the reverse was true of American cards (Study 4). Chinese parents indicated that they would be more likely to select and Chinese students indicated that they would be more likely to receive graduation card messages containing process- versus person-praise compliments (Study 5). American parents and students showed no effects of type of compliment.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, August, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Whether an individual perceives an appearance compliment in the workplace as sexual harassment may depend on a number of factors such as the gender and/or status of the complimenter. Three hundred eighty-three (130 males, 253 females) participants completed an online survey in which they read and rated six different hypothetical vignettes imagining themselves as the recipient of an appearance compliment from a male superior, subordinate, and peer, as well as a female in each of those three status positions. Participants also filled out the Big Five Inventory (BFI; see John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008) in order to assess how personality may influence harassment perceptions. Females perceived opposite-sex appearance compliments as more harassing than males did (p < .001, d = 1.33), and males perceived same-sex compliments as more harassing than females did (p < .001, d = 0.85). Appearance compliments from those in the three status positions were also perceived differently (p < .001, np2 = .29) with compliments from superiors perceived as more harassing than from peers (p < .001) and subordinates (p < .001), and subordinates perceived as more harassing than peers (p < .001). Three of the Big Five personality factors (Conscientiousness, b = 9.93, p < .001; Neuroticism, b = 9.46, p < .001; and Openness, b = -5.04, p = .04) were predictive of harassment perceptions (R2 = .087, p < .001). Based on these findings, it is recommended that males and those in superior status positions avoid giving appearance compliments in the workplace.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 139-142).

This essay is to find out how men and women use compliments in English conversations in TV-series. The compliments will be analyzed as to their frequency, form topic and function.