Unraveling Gender-related differences in Compliment exchanges: the case of Hijazi Speakers

Abstract

This study examined the socio-pragmatic aspects of complimenting behavior among Hijazi speakers of Al Taif City, Saudi Arabia.  The study explored the effect of gender on complimenting behavior, in an attempt to foster the shortage of literature addressing issues related to complimenting behavior in Arabic societies, particularly Hijazi case. Trained investigators collected the naturally accruing data through spontaneous compliments and compliment responses via ethnographic fieldwork. Unlike similar previous studies, Hijazi men and women were found to offer nearly a similar number of compliments regardless of gender. However, a probable difference in the syntactic patterns of each gender was reported where males surpassed females in their use of implicit compliments lacking positive semantic carriers. Regardless of gender, the interlocutors were more inclined to agree with the compliments than disagree, and acceptance was the most opted-for agreement response strategy. The rapidly growing Western influence seemed to have an influence on complimenting behavior. The findings of this study were likely to fill a certain gap in the documentation of complimenting behavior among Saudi men and women, a society that has shown indications of being somewhat less conservative than before. This study can be extended to other cultures and replicated with inclusion of other sociocultural factors such as age and relationship.