A Contrastive Study of Compliment Responses and Its Implications for TEFL

In the light of Herbert's (1989) taxonomy, this paper attempts to make a contrastive study of compliment responses from the pragmatic perspective, with a view to discovering whether there is any preference or tendency between Chinese and American respondents, who are in different social statuses, to compliment. Based on the data analysis, it was found that, apart from the different cultural constraints, social status is an important factor affecting the use of different types of compliment responses. Finally, the author also touches upon some implications for TEFL.