Self-praise by Chinese and American celebrities on TV talk shows
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/eap.20299Keywords:
self-praise, politeness principle, modesty, culture, celebritiesAbstract
Self-praise, a social practice that threatens the positive face of the addressee, is a relatively under-explored topic in politeness research. This article examines self-praise strategies used by Chinese and American celebrities. Based on an existing taxonomy of self-praise strategies, namely, explicit self-praise without modification, explicit self-praise with modification, and implicit self-praise, we collected data from two Chinese TV shows (Yang Lan Interview One on One and Jin Xing Show) and two American TV shows (The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Charlie Rose Show). Through a detailed analysis of interactions between host and celebrity within Leech’s (2014) General Strategy of Politeness, it is found that there are four modification devices and three implicit frames in their self-praise. Additionally, American celebrities tend to praise themselves explicitly while Chinese counterparts always mitigate it. Cultural differences exhibited in the form of face-preserving needs and attitudes to the audience may account for preferences for different self-praise strategies in the two linguistic communities. The findings not only open a cross-cultural window to self-praise research but also offer insights into third-person politeness theorising.
References
Aronsson, K., & Morgenstern, A. (2021). “Bravo!”: Co-constructing praise in French family life. Journal of Pragmatics, 173, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.12.002
Bond, M. H., Leung, K., & Wan, K.-C. (1982). The social impact of self-effacing attributions: The Chinese case. Journal of Social Psychology, 118(2), 157–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1982.9922794
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813085
Colvin, C. R., Block, J., & Funder, D. C. (1995). Overly positive self-evaluations and personality: Negative implications for mental health. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(6), 1152–1162. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.68.6.1152
Dayter, D. (2014). Self-praise in microblogging. Journal of Pragmatics, 61, 91–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.11.021
Dayter, D. (2016). Discursive self in microblogging: Speech acts, stories and self-praise. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.260
Dayter, D. (2018). Self-praise online and offline: The hallmark speech act of social media? Internet Pragmatics, 1(1), 184–203. https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00009.day
Dayter, D. (2021). Dealing with interactionally risky speech acts in simultaneous interpreting: The case of self-praise. Journal of Pragmatics, 174, 28–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.12.010
Fragale, A. R., & Grant, A. M. (2015). Busy brains, boasters’ gains: Self-promotion effectiveness depends on audiences cognitive resources. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 58, 63–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2014.12.002
Gao, G. (1998). “Don’t take my word for it’’: Understanding Chinese speaking practices. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 22(2), 163–186. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0147-1767(98)00003-0
Gao, G., & Ting-Toomey, S. (1998). Communicating effectively with the Chinese. California: Sage Publications.
Gibbs, J. L., Ellison, N. B., & Heino, R. D. (2006). Self-presentation in online personals: The role of anticipated future interaction, self-disclosure, and perceived success in internet dating. Communication Research, 33(2), 152–177. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650205285368
Gibbs, J. L., Ellison, N. B., & Lai, C.-H. (2011). First comes love, then comes Google: An investigation of uncertainty reduction strategies and self-disclosure in online dating. Communication Research, 38(1), 70–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650210377091
Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Gu, Y. (1990). Politeness phenomena in modern Chinese. Journal of Pragmatics, 14(2), 237–257. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(90)90082-O
Guo, Y., & Ren, W. (2020). Managing image: The self-praise of celebrities on social media. Discourse, Context & Media, 38, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2020.100433
Holmes, J. (1986). Compliments and compliment responses in New Zealand English. Anthropological Linguistics, 28(4), 485–508.
Kim, M.-H. (2014). Why self-deprecating? Achieving ‘oneness’ in conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 69, 82–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2014.03.004
Leech, G. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman.
Leech, G. (2014). The pragmatics of politeness. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195341386.001.0001
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224–253. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224
Matley, D. (2018). “This is NOT a #humblebrag, this is just a #brag”: The pragmatics of self-praise, hashtags and politeness in Instagram posts. Discourse, Context & Media, 22, 30–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2017.07.007
Miller, L. C., Cooke, L., Tsang, J., & Morgan, F. (1992). Should I brag? Nature and impact of positive and boastful disclosures for women and men. Human Communication Research, 18(3), 364–399. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.1992.tb00557.x
Pomerantz, A. (1978). Compliment responses: Notes on the co-operation of multiple constraints. In J. Schenkein (Ed.), Studies in the organization of conversational interaction (pp. 79–112). London: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-623550-0.50010-0
Pomerantz, A. (1984). Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: Some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. In J. Maxwell Atkinson & J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis (pp. 57–101). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511665868.008
Ren, W., & Guo, Y. (2020). Self-praise on Chinese social networking sites. Journal of Pragmatics, 169, 179–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.09.009
Rhodewalt, F., Madrian, J. C., & Cheney, S. (1998). Narcissism, self-knowledge organization, and emotional reactivity: The effect of daily experiences on self-esteem and affect. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24(1), 75–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167298241006
Rüdiger, S., & Dayter, D. (2020). Manbragging online: Self-praise on pick-up artists’ forums. Journal of Pragmatics, 161, 16–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.02.012
Rudman, L. A. (1998). Self-promotion as a risk factor for women: The costs and benefits of counterstereotypical impression management. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(3), 629–645. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.3.629
Schlenker, B. R., & Leary, M. R. (1982). Audiences’ reactions to self-enhancing, self-denigrating, and accurate self-presentations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 18(1), 89–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(82)90083-X
Speer, S. A. (2012). The interactional organization of self-praise: Epistemics, preference organization, and implications for identity research. Social Psychology Quarterly, 75(1), 52–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/0190272511432939
Spencer-Oatey, H., & Kádár, D. Z. (2015). The bases of (im)politeness evaluations: Culture, the moral order and the East–West debate. East Asian Pragmatics, 1(1), 73–106. https://doi.org/10.1558/eap.v1i1.29084
Stevens, C. K., & Kristof, A. L. (1995). Making the right impression: A field study of applicant impression management during job interviews. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80(5), 587–606. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.80.5.587
Tobback, E. (2019). Telling the world how skilful you are: Self-praise strategies on LinkedIn. Discourse & Communication, 13(6), 647–668. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481319868854
Underwood, K. (2011). Facework as self-heroicisation: A case study of three elderly women. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(8), 2215-2242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2011.02.010
Wu, R.-J. R. (2011). A conversation analysis of self-praising in everyday Mandarin interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(13), 3152–3176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2011.05.016
Wu, R.-J. R. (2012). Self-praising through reporting: Strategic use of two reporting practices in Mandarin conversation. Discourse Process, 49(8), 622–659. https://doi.org/10.1080/0163853X.2012.722060
Wu, D., & Lin, M. (2017). Speech acts and facework by Chinese celebrities on Weibo. In X. Chen (Ed.), Politeness phenomena across Chinese genres (pp. 119–134). Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
Zhang, M., & Wu, D. (2018). A cross-cultural analysis of celebrity practice in microblogging. East Asian Pragmatics, 3(2), 179–200. https://doi.org/10.1558/eap.33060
