Understanding Compliments in Multimodal Communication

This book offers a pioneering investigation into how multimodal speech acts, particularly compliments, are perceived, interpreted, and evaluated across cultural and technological contexts. Introducing the Multimodal Compliment Perception Model, it offers a fresh framework for understanding evaluative practices in everyday interaction. Drawing on pragmatics and (im)politeness research, it examines how factors like culture, age, gender, and personality shape compliment perception, and how different modalities—text, emoji, audio, video, gesture—impact evaluations in digital and face-to-face settings. Using mixed methods and data from over 400 participants across Chinese, Swiss German, and English-speaking backgrounds, the study develops three innovative tools to measure perceptions of sincerity, politeness, and emotional authenticity. The book contributes to multimodal pragmatics by extending facework and relational work into dynamic, culturally sensitive environments. It offers practical tools for researchers in speech act theory, intercultural pragmatics, and digital sociolinguistics. Aimed at scholars in pragmatics, especially (im)politeness, speech act theory, and multimodal interaction, this book offers both theoretical insights and practical tools for analyzing digital and embodied communication. It’s also a valuable resource for researchers in intercultural pragmatics, discourse analysis, gesture studies, multimodal analysis, and digital sociolinguistics.