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F I G U R E 4 . 1 Compliment for a baby
in fashion in the given speech community or sub-community, especially
among youth (e.g., “sweet,” “da bomb,” “phat,” and “ill” in English in the US).
Strategies for responses to compliments
Semantically, common responses to compliments can be categorized into
acceptance, mitigation, and rejection. Each category has sub-categories:
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1
Accept:
■
Token of appreciation (Thanks/ Thank you.)
■
Acceptance by means of a comment (Yeah, it’s my favorite, too.)
■
Upgrading the compliment by self-praise (Yeah, I can play other sports
well too.)
2
Mitigate:
■
Comment about history (I bought it for the trip to Arizona.)
■
Shifting the credit (My brother gave it to me/It really knitted itself.)
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Nelson et al. (1996); Herbert and Straight (1989).

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G R O U N D I N G I N T H E T E A C H I N G A N D L E A R N I N G O F L 2 P R A G M A T I C S
■
Questioning or requesting reassurance or repetition (Do you really
like them?)
■
Reciprocating (So’s yours.)
■
Scaling down or downgrading (It’s really quite old.)
3
Reject:
■
Disagreeing (A: You look good and healthy. B: I feel fat.)
4
No response.
5
Request interpretation:
■
Addressee interprets the compliment as a request (You wanna borrow
this one too?)
All of the information about giving and responding to compliments as
described above can be directly applied to pragmatics instruction in the L2
classroom. Sample lesson materials designed for intermediate ESL learners
based on this information can be found in Chapter 7.
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For further informa-
tion (e.g., statistical information, gender differences in giving and respond-
ing to compliments, compliments in other varieties of English and other
languages, and teaching tips), visit the site available at: http://www.carla.
umn.edu/speechacts/compliments/index.html.
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Refusals
In making a refusal, the speaker/writer is typically communicating a poten-
tially undesirable message as far as the listener/reader is concerned. What
strategies can be used to mitigate refusals in English? What pragmatic norms
prevail in making and interpreting refusals in English?
Functions and strategies for refusing
Refusals are often made in response to requests, invitations, offers, and 
suggestions. The direct and indirect strategies of refusals can be described as
follows:
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12
The effects of this instruction were studied and reported in Ishihara (2004).
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Accessed on December 10, 2009.
14
Beebe et al. (1990).

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D E S C R I B I N G S P E E C H A C T S : L I N K I N G R E S E A R C H A N D P E D A G O G Y