There is a lack of awareness of the use of compliments and compliment responses in the Saudi Arabian context. This research investigates, from a sociolinguistic perspective, the speech acts of compliments and compliment responses as realized by eighty Saudi students who study English as a Foreign Language (EFL). It aims to identify the semantic and structural formulas used by the participants to express compliments and to respond to compliments. The study also examines the roles of the topic of conversation and the participants’ first language in the realisation of compliments. Furthermore, the study investigates gender differences with regard to the use of compliments and compliment responses. A discourse completion test (DCT) consisting of twelve situations was used to collect data from the participants. The analysis of the responses found that the dominant form of compliments used was unbound semantic formulas that were not influenced by the social relationship between the participants. Topics that are socially delicate result in the use of more implicit compliments than explicit compliments. The religious norms require politeness in the interactions between people, and this is reflected in the prevalence of implicit compliments. There is a wide range of compliments used with no fixed pattern of usage. Compliments tend to be given using adjectives rather than verbs. Gender did not appear to affect the nature of usage of compliments and responses. The research suggests that the cultural influences of the English language and western culture may be influencing how young Saudis use compliments.

中文翻译：

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对年轻沙特人赞美和赞美反应的社会语言学调查

在沙特阿拉伯语境中，人们对赞美和赞美回应的使用缺乏认识。本研究从社会语言学的角度调查了八十名学习英语作为外语 (EFL) 的沙特学生所实现的赞美和赞美反应的言语行为。它旨在确定参与者用来表达赞美和回应赞美的语义和结构公式。该研究还考察了谈话主题和参与者的第一语言在实现恭维方面的作用。此外，该研究调查了在使用恭维和恭维反应方面的性别差异。使用由十二种情况组成的话语完成测试（DCT）来收集参与者的数据。对回答的分析发现，使用的主要赞美形式是不受参与者之间社会关系影响的无约束语义公式。社会敏感话题会导致使用更多的含蓄恭维而不是明确的恭维。宗教规范要求人与人之间的交往要有礼貌，这反映在含蓄恭维的盛行上。有广泛的赞美使用，没有固定的使用模式。赞美往往使用形容词而不是动词来表达。性别似乎不会影响赞美和回应的使用性质。研究表明，英语和西方文化的文化影响可能会影响年轻的沙特人如何使用恭维。