Compliments in Talk Shows in France and Iran
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article explores how compliments are used in French and Iranian talk shows, based on a contrastive audiovisual corpus. Drawing on a dual tertium comparationis, the talk show genre on the one hand, and the speech act of complimenting on the other, points of convergence were identified between the corpora before the analyses. However, the examination of the data revealed some differences. In French, compliments, which are only weakly ritualized, tend to function as occasional markers of appreciation, often linked to the promotion of cultural works. In Persian, by contrast, compliments are embedded within the framework of ta’ârof, a highly codified politeness ritual, and are frequently offered at the opening of interactions to honor the guest and establish a respectful relational climate. The study also highlights the multimodal dimension of these utterances (verbal, paraverbal, and nonverbal) and their interactional effects on face management, particularly in Persian.
DOI: 10.4000/162lu
Authors: Chantal Claudel, Shima Moallemi
Institutions: Université Paris Nanterre, Utrecht University
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7154454099