Politeness Strategies in Giving Compliment by Native Japanese Speakers in Podcast

Abstract

Compliments serve as a positive politeness strategy to establish and maintain relationships by recognizing and appreciating the positive face of the interlocutor. This research analyzes positive politeness strategies in Japanese compliment speech acts. The approach employed is a qualitative method that involves analyzing information from four data sources, specifically podcasts uploaded across various YouTube channels. The study revealed that 8 out of 15 positive politeness strategies appeared in 33 dialogues, with: 1) Exaggerate being the most frequently used strategy at 19 occurrences; 2) Notice & attend to the hearer appeared 9 times; 3) Intensify interest for the hearer was noted 8 times; 4) Give or ask for reasons happened 3 times; 5) Include both speaker and hearer in the activity occurred twice; 6) Assert common ground, tell a joke, and give a gift to the hearer were each utilized once.