Abstract
This article discusses “specified compliments” consisting of a positive evaluation of an ability or achievement; a preposition; and an area of expertise or excellence, e.g. “experts in security”. An analysis of 74 examples in comments on politicians’ Facebook posts during 2020-2021 revealed that specified compliments convey a predominantly ironic meaning in order to criticize the complimentee. Three different categories of ironic specified compliments are identified: (1) compliments where the area of expertise is positive and are interpreted as ironical based on their linguistic and extralinguistic context; (2) compliments where the area of expertise is negative and are thus understood as insincere; and (3) compliments in which the area of expertise is apparently positive but less than other areas, and therefore they are paradoxically interpreted as both sincere compliments in a specific area and a condemnation in general.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 339-366 |
| Number of pages | 28 |
| Journal | Pragmatics and Cognition |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 31 Dec 2024 |
Keywords
- compliments
- condemnation
- irony
- readers’ comments
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Computer Science
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language
- Behavioral Neuroscience
- History and Philosophy of Science