Description and analysis of compliments found in the university student speech community of the city of Neiva (Huila) Descripción y análisis de piropos encontrados en la comunidad de habla estudiantil universitaria de la ciudad de Neiva (Huila)

Abstract

The following study aims to analyze the compliments used by the university student speech community in the city of Neiva, Huila. Its importance is reflected in the regularity with which the compliment is used in these communities. In this research, the contributions of Lakoff (1973) and Brown & Levinson (1987) are considered, regarding the politeness theory, as well as Cuenca & Hilferty (1999) with the conceptual metaphors. The methodology used was a virtual survey of 56 university students (28 women and 28 men) divided into three parts: knowing the basic information of the participants, their experiences as senders or receivers of compliments and writing 3 compliments that they know. With the 117 compliments obtained, a classification was made according to Correa & Mancera (2009). Of these, a final corpus of 37 compliments-metaphors was obtained. It is concluded that a compliment is seen as an insult or compliment depending on the person who says it or the context in which it was said. Poetic compliments, with a level of positive politeness, are the most common and the most prominent metaphors in this study are those corresponding to the “poetic” field and not the “sexual” one.