Gender based differences in compliments and compliment responses in the american comedy TV series

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration - i Acknowledgements - ii Abstract - iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations vii List of tables viii List of figures ix INTRODUCTION - 1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study - Aims of the study - Research questions - Scope of the study Methodology Significance of the study Organization of the study CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 SPEECH ACT THEORY - 1.1.1 Austin’s speech act theory - 1.1.2 Searle’s speech act theory - 1.2 POLITENESS AND FACE THEORY - 1.2.1 Notion of politeness and face - 1.2.2 Conversational-maxim view on politeness 1.2.2.1 Grice’s cooperative principle - 1.2.2.2 Leech’s politeness principle 1.2.3 Face-management view on politeness - 11 1.2.3.1 Negative and positive face 11 1.2.3.2 Positive and negative politeness - 12 1.3 COMPLIMENTS 13 1.3.1 The definition of compliments 13 1.3.2 The topics of compliments 13 1.3.3 The functions of compliments 14 v 1.4 COMPLIMENT RESPONSES - 14 1.5 GENDER AND LANGUAGE - 17 1.5.1 Gender and sex 17 1.5.2 Gender-based differences in language use 19 1.5.2.1 Topic control 19 1.5.2.2 Talking time 20 1.5.2.3 Tag questions - 20 1.5.2.4 Interruption 23 1.5.2.5 Use of silence - 24 1.5.3 Explanations for gender-based differences in language use 24 1.6 GENDER AND POLITENESS 27 1.7 RELATED STUDIES - 29 1.7.1 Review of the studies on compliments and compliment responses - 29 1.7.2 Review of the studies on gender-based differences in compliments and compliment responses 33 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY - 37 2.1 METHODOLOGY - 37 2.1.1 Material 37 2.1.2 Data collection procedures 37 2.1.3 Participants 37 2.1.3.1 Female characters 37 2.1.3.2 Male characters - 38 2.1.4 Data analysis procedures 39 2.2 RESULTS - 39 2.2.1 The differences in compliment behavior between males and females 39 2.2.1.1 Frequency of compliments 39 2.2.1.2 Topics of compliments 42 2.2.1.3 Functions of compliments 47 2.2.2 The differences in compliment responses between males and females - 51 2.3 DISCUSSION 56 2.3.1 Discussion of the findings on the differences in compliment behavior between males and females - 56 vi 2.3.2 Discussion of the findings on the differences in compliment response between males and females - 58 CONCLUSION 61 Summary of the findings 61 Implications - 62 2.1 Intercultural communication 62 2.2 Pedagogical implications 63 Limitations of the study - 65 Suggestions for further research 65 REFERENCES - 67 APPENDIX Compliments and compliment responses in the American comedy TV-series “Ugly Betty” (Episodes 1-10, Season 1) - I vii LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS CA: Conversation analysis CP: Cooperative principle CR: Compliment response DCT: Discourse Completion Test FSA: Face-saving act FTA: Face-threatening act F: Female M: Male PP: Politeness principle viii LISTS OF TABLES Table 1-1: The five general functions of speech acts (Yule, 1996, p 55) Table 1-2: Herbert’s CR types (1989) Table 1-3: Functions of tag-questions between women and men (Holmes, 1992) Table 1-4: Functions of tag-questions between women and men (Coates & Cameron, 1989) Table 1-5: Interruptions in cross-sex conversations (Zimmerman & West, 1975) Table 2-1: Female characters Table 2-2: Male characters Table 2-3: The distribution of compliments to someone present and someone absent by gender of complimenter Table 2-4: The number of compliments in the overall episodes Table 2-5: Compliments by gender of participants Table 2-6: Interaction between compliment topic and gender of participants Table 2-7: Compliments on Appearance Table 2-8: Compliments on Possession Table 2-9: Compliments on Performance/ability/skill Table 2-10: Compliments on Personality Table 2-11: Interaction between compliment function and gender of participants Table 2-12: The distribution of compliment responses Table 2-13: Compliment response interaction data Table 2-14: Three broad categories of compliment responses Table 2-15: ACCEPTANCE AGREEMENT responses Table 2-16: APPRECIATION TOKEN responses Table 2-17: AGREEMENT (ACCEPTANCE and NON-ACCEPTANCE) responses Table 2-18: NON-AGREEMENT responses Table 2-19: NO ACKNOWLEDGMENT responses ix LISTS OF FIGURES Figure 1: Leech’s indirectness scale (1983, p 108) Figure 2-1: Interaction between compliment topic and gender of participants Figure 2-2: Interaction between compliment function and gender of participants INTRODUCTION The introduction states the problem and the rationale of the study, together with the aims, scope, methodology, the significance and the organization of the whole paper Above all, it is in this chapter that the research questions are set out to work as the guidelines for the whole research Statement of the problem and rationale for the study An effective language user is competent in not only linguistics but also pragmatics As Yule (1996) put it, “nothing in the use of the linguistic forms is inaccurate, but getting the pragmatics wrong might be offensive” (p 5-6) To be able to use a target language appropriately in terms of pragmatic competence, language users should employ a variety of speech acts Complimenting is one of them Compliments not only express sincere admiration of positive qualities, but they also replace greetings, thanks or apologies, and minimize face-threatening acts (henceforth FTAs), such as criticism, scolding, or requests (Brown & Levinson, 1987; Holmes, 1988a; Wolfson, 1983, 1989) Complimenting is a tool of establishing friendship that creates ties of solidarity in American culture It is also an important social strategy that functions as an opener for a conversation, allowing meaningful social interactions to follow Americans pay compliments so frequently that neglecting to so can even be interpreted as a sign of disapproval (Manes, 1983; Wolfson, 1989; Wolfson & Manes, 1980) and a wrong use of compliments may cause embarrassment and offense (Dunham, 1992; Holmes & Brown, 1987) Each culture requires various kinds of speech act behavior Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (1989) found that “culturally colored interactional styles create culturally determined expectations and interpretative strategies, and can lead to breakdowns in intercultural and interethnic communication” (p 30) In other words, when people from different cultures interact, breakdowns in communication may happen due to signaling different speech act strategies that reflect the culture‟s distinctive interactional style Complimenting is a particularly suitable speech act to investigate because it acts as a window through which we can view what is valued in a particular culture Thus, it is essential for Vietnamese learners of English to know how to give appropriate compliments and responses in English Complimenting is inevitably affected by social factors including gender According to Tannen (1990), gender differences are parallel to cross-cultural differences Therefore, it is worthwhile to study the interactions between men and women, men and men, or women and women exchanging compliments and responses All those reasons stimulate the researcher to conduct a study on gender-based differences in compliments and compliment responses in English conversations through the American Comedy TV-series “Ugly Betty” The people in the TV series are not real people, but the actors are chosen to match the real ones in daily life What can be assumed is that the data would bare resemblance to real life language Hopefully, the study will make a contribution to the field which it is envisioned and fill the gaps in previous research Aims of the study First of all, the study sets out to investigate the gender-based differences in compliment behavior including the frequency of compliments, compliment topics and the functions of compliments Secondly, the differences between males and females in compliments response strategies are explored The findings will pave the way for several pedagogical and intercultural communication implications Research questions The research seeks the answers to the following research questions: Research question 1: What are the differences in compliment behavior between males and females? Research question 2: What are the differences in compliment responses between males and females? Scope of the study There are four seasons in this TV-series with the total of 85 episodes However, due to the size and limitation of a preliminary research, the dialogues in the episodes one to ten in the first season are used with the development of the story Every episode takes about 40 minutes Totally, this study will analyze ten episodes of around 400 minutes The compliments among 18 characters balanced in gender, females and males, are chosen Some compliments are excluded from the present study: compliments to a place or an object that does not belong to interactants, compliments to speakers themselves or to a group of people, compliments from a group to a particular thing or a special person Furthermore, a compliment may be sincere or insincere Mills (2003) stated: The hearer might consider that the speaker is being insincere and is only complimenting because he/she wants something – i.e that it is serving some longer term goal; or it might be interpreted as suggesting that the person does not look good at all, but the speaker is being kind (p 220) Also, compliments can have an ironic meaning (Holmes, 1995, p 119) For instance, if the interlocutors are enemies, the compliments between them have ironic meanings Within the scope of an M.A thesis, only sincere compliments are analyzed Methodology Quantitative and qualitative methods are both used in this paper with priorities given to the quantitative one In other words, all the conclusions and considerations are based on the analysis of the empirical studies and statistics processed on Stata 10, a software program commonly used in social sciences In addition, such methods as descriptive, analytic, comparative and contrastive are also utilized to describe and analyze, to compare and contrast the database so as to find out gender-based differences in compliments‟ frequency, topics and functions and types of compliment response strategies Significance of the study The present study is conducted to find out the influences of gender on compliment behavior and compliment response strategies in English It will add to the research on compliments and second language acquisition Regarding researchers who share the same interest in the topic, they could rely on this paper to get useful information for their future studies Besides, the study could help Vietnamese learners of English to be aware of sociolinguistic aspects of English and thus to improve their pragmatic competence As for teachers of English, the findings from this paper may have crucial pedagogical implications for practice of teaching English as a foreign language Organization of the study After the Introduction, the rest of the paper includes the following parts: Chapter (Literature Review) provides the background of the study including the definitions of key concepts and the discussions of related studies Chapter (The study) describes the procedures to conduct the research, presents, analyzes the results and discusses the findings the researcher obtained according to the two research questions Conclusion summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper, provides some implications and points out the limitations of the research as well as proposes several suggestions for further studies Following this part are References and Appendix CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, theoretical preliminaries and fundamental concepts related to the research topic are reviewed Moreover, the overview of related studies is also taken into consideration 73 Manes, J (1983) Compliments: A mirror of cultural values In N Wolfson & E Judd (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language acquisition (pp 88-95) Rowley, MA: Newbury House Manes J & Wolfson N (1981) The compliment formula In F Coumas (Ed.) 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Malden, MA: Blackwell Mills, S (2003) Gender and politeness Cambridge University Press Moskowitz, D S., Jung Suh, E., & Desaulniers, J (1994) Situational influences on gender differences in agency and communion Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66(4), 753-761 Nelson, L G., Al-Batal, M & Echols, E (1996) Arabic and English compliment responses: Potential for pragmatic failure Applied Linguistics, 17(4), 411-432 Nelson L G., El Bakary, W & Al Batal M (1993) Egyptian and American compliments: A cross-cultural study International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 17(3), 293313 Nguyễn, H (2000) An introduction to discourse analysis Vietnam National University Press Norrick, N (1980) The speech act of complimenting In E Hovdhaugen (Ed.), The Nordic languages and modern linguistics (pp 296-304) Oslo: Universitetsforlaget Parisi, C & Wogan, P (2006) Compliment topics and gender Women and Language, 29, 21–28 Pinker, S (2007) The evolutionary social psychology of off-record indirect speech acts Intercultural Pragmatics, 4(4), 437-461 74 Pomerantz, A (1978) Compliment responses: Notes on the co-operation of multiple constraints In J Schenkein (Ed.), Studies in the organization of conversation interaction Academic Press Pridam, F (2001) The language of conversation London: Routledge Richards, J C (1983) Communicative needs in foreign language learning” In Wolfson & Judd (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language Acquisition Newbury House Publishers Richards, J C (1985) The context of language teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Sadker, M & Sadker, D (1994) Failing at fairness: how America’s schools cheat girls New York: Scribners Savignon, S (1997) Communicative competence theory and classroom practice: Texts and contexts in second language learning McGraw Hill Searle, J R (1975) Indirect speech acts In P Cole & J L Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics (pp 60-61) New York: NY: Academic Press Searle, J R (1969) Speech acts Oxford: Cambridge University Press Searle, J R (1976) A classification of Illocutionary acts Language in Society, 5, 1-23 Searle, J R (1979) Expression and meaning: Studies in the theory of speech acts Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Sherman, J (1978) Sex-related cognitive differences: An essay on theory and evidence Springfield, IL Smith-Hefner, N (1988) Women and politeness: the Javanese example Language and Society, 17, 535-554 Spender, D (1980) Man made language London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Spender, D (1989) The writing or the sex New York: Pergamon Press 75 Stern, H (1983) Fundamental concepts of language teaching London Oxford: Oxford University Press Stier, D S., & Hall, J A (1984) Gender differences in touch: An empirical and theoretical review Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 440-459 Tannen, D (1987) That’s not what I meant! How conversational style makes or breaks relationships New York: Ballantine Tannen, D (1990) You just don’t understand: Women and men in conversation New York: Ballantine Books Tannen, D (1994) Gender and discourse Oxford University Press Thomas, J (1995) Meaning in interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics USA, England: Longman Thorne, B & Henley, N (1975) Difference and dominance: An overview of language, gender and society In B Thorne & N Henley (Eds.), Language and sex: Difference and dominance (pp 5-42) Rowley, MA: Newbury House Trudgill, P (1972) Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British dialect of Norwich Language and Society, 1, 179-195 Trudgill, P (1978) Sociolinguistic patterns in British English London Unger, R K (1976) Male is greater than female: The socialization of status inequality Counseling Psychologist, 6(2), 2-9 Unger, R K (1979) Female and male: Psychological perspectives New York: Harper & Row West C (1984) When the doctor is a lady Symbolic Interaction, 7(1), 87-106 West, C & Zimmerman, D (1977) Women‟s place in everyday talk: Reflections on parent-child interaction Social Problems, 24, 521-529 West, C & Zimmerman, D (1987) Doing gender Gender and Society, 1, 125-151 76 Wolfson, N (1981) Compliments in cross-cultural perspective TESOL quarterly, 15 Wolfson, N (1983) An empirically based analysis of complimenting in American English In N Wolfson & E Judd (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language acquisition Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House Wolfson, N (1984) Pretty is as pretty does: A speech act view of sex roles Applied Linguistics, 5(3) Wolfson, N (1988) The bulge: A theory of speech behavior and social distance In J Fine (Ed.), Second language discourse: A textbook of current research (pp 21-38) Norwood, NJ: Ablex Wolfson, N (1989) Perspectives: Sociolinguistics and TESOL Rowley, MA: Newbury House Wolfson, N., & Manes, J (1980) The compliments as a social strategy Interactional Journal of Human Communication, 13(3), 410-451 Woods, N (1988) Talking shop: Sex and status as determinants of floor apportionment in a work setting In J Coates & D Cameron (Eds.), Women in their speech communities: New perspectives in language and sex (pp 141-157) New York: Longman Ye, L (1995) Complimenting in mandarin Chinese In G Kasper (Ed) Pragmatics of Chinese as native and target language University of Hawaii, USA Yoko, U (1995) Japanese Compliment Responses: A Comparison to American English Norms Japan Journal of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism, 1(1) Yule, G (1996) Pragmatics Oxford: Oxford University Press Zimmerman, D & West, C (1975) Sex Roles, Interruptions and Silences in Conversations In B Thorne & N Henley (Eds.) (1975), Language and Sex: Difference and dominance (pp 105-129) Rowley, MA: Newbury House VIETNAMESE 77 Nguyễn, Q (1998) Một số khác biệt giao tiếp lời nói Việt-Mỹ cách thức khen tiếp nhận lời khen Luận án tiến sĩ khoa học ngữ văn ĐH KHXH & NV, ĐHQGHN I APPENDIX COMPLIMENTS AND COMPLIMENT RESPONSES IN THE AMERICAN COMEDY TV - SERIES “UGLY BETTY” (EPISODES – 10, SEASON 1) Betty: I like your poncho Amazon: Milan Dolce & Gabbana Christina: Betty, we’re all proud o 3-4 Betty: That Traveler layout with th I just wanted to say what a big fan Craig: I don’t know what you’r photographer’s stuff Amanda: Ugh, she is so fabulously 6-7 Amanda: Oh, he’s amazing He’s shot, like, everything Betty: Your best one Marc: Killer poncho Betty: Thanks 10 Ignacio: You’ve always been so go Just like your mother was Betty: Thanks, Dad 11 Daniel: I never saw that layout you smart And beautiful Betty: Thank you 12 Ignacio: You look way too young t Daniel: I’ve gotten that before 13 Bradford: Good work Daniel: This idea was actually… 14 Daniel: Nice place Betty: We’re just in between interi 15 Daniel (- Betty): She appears to be 16 Marc: Nice, you stole the good stuff Justin: Thanks 17 Amanda: Hi! Kate: Me, too 18 Betty (- Ama 19 Wilhelmina: Marc: So did 20 Wilhelmina: 21 Kate: I like th Betty: Really 22 Kate: It’s kin 23-28 Christina (- K Betty: She se She looked g Betty: (- Kate Hilda: she lo Christina: Lo 29 Kate: You ca 30 Marc: And I different Betty: Thank 31 Marc: Great Betty: Oh tha College 32 Ignacio: Bue 33 Wilhelmina: 34 Christina: Yo Betty: But yo 35 Fabia: Baby, 36 Betty: Danie Daniel: It wa of memos 37-38 Betty: That amazing Bianchi: Oh, 39 Wilhelmina: initiative at t 40 Betty (- Vinc 41-42 Betty (- Vinc He’s shot eve 43-46 Kenny: You’ Betty: Me? Kenny: You s Betty: Oh, no Kenny: Wha Betty: Um Kenny: And 47 Justin: You’d Betty: Oh, ye 48 Justin: You’r Betty: Thank 49 Daniel: Good Wilhelmina: 50 Marc: Nice Justin: Thank 51 Marc: Nice v Justin: Thank 52 Marc: Pretty Justin: Best d 53 Amanda (- B back 54 Betty (- Igan 55 M: You know W: Good Yo 56-57 Marc: You Women look that young m morning will Wilhelmina: Five years 58 Marc (- Wilhelmina): Hail 59 Hilda (- Leah, a lawyer): T Leah: You know what? Do 60 Wilhelmina: Oh, things wi speak Fabia: Good 61 Nico (- Wilhelmina): How 62 Sofia Reyes (- Daniel): Th 63 Betty: Sofia Reyes She s 64 Wilhelmina: Do you know Betty: Sure He has great t 65 Wilhelmina: It’s the greate 66 Betty: You’re our rock, dad 67 Bradford: Meade publish empowered modern woma The point is, that I wish to brains behind our new mag 68 Daniel (- Sofia): She was t 69-71 Daniel (- Sofia) I mean, it’ You know, skillful Something profound Jewelry! 72-73 Sofia: Betty, I’ve got some Betty: Wow, that's so nice 74 Sofia (- Betty) You’re my 75 Betty: Um you know, I'm opinion on the subject Sofia: Betty Suarez, you a 76 Betty (- Sofia): I mean, I h when I was at Queens coll Sofia: I’m honored 77 Sofia: and I’m taking advantage of Betty’s intelligence 78 Christina (- W convention 79-80 Sofia: I thoug Betty: You li Sofia: I loved 81 LeBeau: Wh Wilhelmina: 82 Hilda (- Sant all the time, b 83-84 Bradford (to You’ve lande Wilhelmina: 85 Bradford: Al Wilhelmina: 86 Marc: You lo Wilhelmina: undergarmen 87-88 Lebeau: Affo Wilhelmina: LeBeau: Wel 89 Santos: You l Hilda: Thank 90 Wilhelmina: Beaumart LeBeau: Tha 91 LeBeau: Wil Wilhelmina: 92-93 Daniel: Wow Betty: Thank 94 Nico: I can’t Wilhelmina: 95-97 Betty: You’re Daniel: Ah, i VI Betty: You’re bachelors in Daniel: "Esq Betty: Trust m across from y Daniel: Than 98 Justin: Hey, m to talk to her Hilda: Great Justin: Thank 99 Daniel: I thin Sofia: I think 100 Betty (- Dani 101 Santos: Well, Justin: Hi, da 102 Santos: You l Ignacio: Glad 103 Daniel: I real Gordon: No, 104 Marc: Slimm Betty: Thank 105 Santos: So w Betty: Yeah, 106 Marc: You lo Amanda: Tha 107 Ignacio: Hey Justin: [smile 108 Justin: Hey, c Santos: Actu 109 Santos: Hey, Justin: Cool! 110-111 Sofia: Hunte perfect place V Betty: Sounds nice 112 Sofia: Yeah, knowing Hunter, he us in a lobster boat this weekend Betty: Marry? Great Congratulat 113-114 Sofia: You had a few good ones yourself Betty: Not that we’re really using Sofia: Because you think with yo 115 Betty: (when she comes home se he wanted to bring them here Sofia: It looks like Daniel had the 116 Betty: You’re the one who saved Daniel: Yeah, but you’re the one 117 Hilda: Oh, well, we really apprec Daniel: Well, thanks 118 Hilda: Wow, he was such a nice g 119 Wilhelmina: Wait, are you saying Fabulous 120 Betty: “Mode’s” getting the first that’s really exciting 121 Bradford: Yeah, I like that Sofia: Thank you 122-123 Daniel: (to Betty) You know, your family has a lot of cool ornaments I really like your glitter period 124 Daniel: Betty, you're the man Betty: Thanks 125 Marc (- Wilhelmina): Everyone weekend, and besides, I'm sure Bruno’s handling it You 126 Ignacio: How about right there? Daniel: Good job Okay 127Justin: I made the frame out of chenille sticks Daniel: Cool Where’d you find those? Justin: Fabric store VI 128 Daniel: I need Justin’s eyes He’s 129 Ignacio: You’ll make a great fath Daniel: Thank you 130 Santos: Smells great Ignacio: You’re a guest in this ho 131 Ignacio: I really appreciate this Daniel: Thanks 132 Amanda: Hey, Betty, I love your Betty: Amanda, look, I need to pl Daniel a new assistant and get Ju days I’m kinda busy 133 Amanda: You look totally radia Betty: Well, thank you You, too 134 Betty: You really pulled it off Amanda: Thanks 135 136-137 Betty (- Amanda): Well, you’re o Hilda: You’re a dreamer, Betty And look at you – you’re 22 years old, you already work at “Mode.” You can anything Betty: Well, I sure hope you’re ri 138 Daniel: In fact, I stopped by to se I'm through with being a bachelo Betty: Oh, my god Are you serio 139 Henry: Yeah, I have this weird ta Betty: Oh, no, it's not useless It’s Henry: Thanks 140 Amanda: Princess cut canary 141 Betty: And, tonight, Amanda prov 142 Henry: Most people around here you’re always nice Betty: (smile) 143Betty: You know, office party hook ups and Henry: That’s very responsible of you IX Betty: Thanks 144 Daniel: I’m sorry, Aerin You’re – Aerin: I know 145 Daniel: You’re more than just a p 146 Daniel: I’m very proud of you, B Betty: Well, thank you 147 Marc: It’s a 2007 - fresh off the lo 148 Marc (- Wilhelmina): Two words 149 Ignacio: Amor, you are so beautif Betty: Dad, stop Please don’t eve 150 Ignacio: And you have such a bi Betty: And stop it with the "big h 151 Ignacio: You were a really terrific Betty: Thanks, Dad 152 Bradford: Oh, yeah, yeah You lo Betty: Thank you 153 Daniel: Yeah, and dress up you d Betty: Um, you know what? 154 Ignacio: I’m very proud of you Betty: Thank you, Dad 155 Bradford: Congratulations Daniel: Thank you 156 Daniel (- Vincent): Because he's o 157 Marc: Good idea Amanda: Thanks! 158 Betty: It’s easy when you have a Daniel 159 Wilhelmina: Perfect Then we’ve 160 Wilhelmina: Fey put herself in th ever appeared in a center spread 161 Betty: Daniel’s a lot smarter than 162 Hilda: I like that dress 163Betty: Oh! I was getting Sofia’s autograph You like her books? X Daniel: It’s terrific 164Justin: I used the shampoo you bought me It really gets the frizz out 165Marc: Nice ones 166Marc: I think Davy Crockett showed at Westminster How nouveau riche! 167 Hilda (- Santos): He’s good at that ... conduct a study on gender- based differences in compliments and compliment responses in English conversations through the American Comedy TV- series “Ugly Betty” The people in the TV series are not... Phase 2: While watching the episodes, the researcher highlighted all the valid compliments and compliment responses basing on the standards of compliments in the present study The compliments from... envisioned and fill the gaps in previous research Aims of the study First of all, the study sets out to investigate the gender- based differences in compliment behavior including the frequency of compliments,