Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-10T12:25:12.242Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Compliments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

Carmen Fought
Affiliation:
Pitzer College, Claremont
Karen Eisenhauer
Affiliation:
North Carolina State University
Get access

Summary

This chapter begins the sociolinguistic journey of the book, focusing on quantitative analysis of compliments alongside more detail-oriented qualitative analysis. Compliments, as a speech act, work to attribute ‘goods’ to others and thus naturally carries larger value judgments about what a society views as ‘good.’ Compliments in childrens’ movies likewise act as a lens to reveal what the filmmakers consider worthy of praise in their characters — and importantly, whether that varies by gender. In Disney and Pixar films, compliment giving is not presented as particularly gendered but receiving compliments skews towards female recipients. Qualitatively, female characters on-screen together are portrayed as using compliments as a routine politeness strategy and female villains use the guise of this practice to hide more nefarious purposes. This chapter also finds some tentative initial evidence linking femininity and politeness. While compliments are used by both male and female characters, the female characters use compliments as a routine politeness or rapport-building strategy, whereas male characters complimenting another outside task-based settings is less routine, and at times even framed as a climatically “big deal.” This suggests that although characters of either gender can compliment, compliments as a routine politeness strategy is still associated more closely with femininity.

Type
Chapter
Information
Language and Gender in Children's Animated Films
Exploring Disney and Pixar
, pp. 76 - 104
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Compliments
  • Carmen Fought, Pitzer College, Claremont, Karen Eisenhauer, North Carolina State University
  • Book: Language and Gender in Children's Animated Films
  • Online publication: 01 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108894586.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Compliments
  • Carmen Fought, Pitzer College, Claremont, Karen Eisenhauer, North Carolina State University
  • Book: Language and Gender in Children's Animated Films
  • Online publication: 01 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108894586.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Compliments
  • Carmen Fought, Pitzer College, Claremont, Karen Eisenhauer, North Carolina State University
  • Book: Language and Gender in Children's Animated Films
  • Online publication: 01 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108894586.005
Available formats
×