OSKORBLIMENTY (ОСКОРБЛИМЕНТЫ): LINGUISTIC PATTERNS IN BACKHANDED COMPLIMENTS

Abstract

The boundary between genuine positive expression and concealed negativity in communication poses challenges for speakers. In the modern world, this distinction is further complicated as most individuals seek to project specific public images, reinforced by societal norms promoting politeness. This capstone project focuses on the relatively unexplored phenomenon of “backhanded compliments,” expressions that are somewhere in between compliments and insults. My research uses the theoretical framework of im/politeness, referring to Birner’s (1987) term of face, the public self-image that individuals want to have. One’s face can be enhanced, maintained, threatened, or even lost, depending on their actions or the actions of others towards them. According to Birner (2013), all speech acts have a performative nature, so verbal expressions certainly have a potential to harm or enhance one’s face. The use of backhanded compliments particularly allows speakers to maintain their faces while threatening the faces of the hearers. For example, within the the speech act, “You look good today, I did not recognize you!” at least two things are happening: (1) the act threatens the hearer’s face in the way that it hints that the hearer does not look this good usually; (2) this backhanded comment, unlike insults, is “safe” for the utterers, as they can always “shield” themselves saying that they were just complimenting the hearer, thus maintaining their own face. Here, it is essential to understand the terms of illocutionary force and perlocutionary effect (Birner, 2013), where the former means the meaning the speaker puts into their words, and the latter denotes how the hearer interprets and reacts to those words. In the case of backhanded compliments, what a speaker meant to say (illocutionary force), what was actually said (locutionary act), and what a hearer heard (perlocutionary effect) often bear no mutual respondence. In my capstone, I closely study all these three components of backhanded compliments.