Abstract:Compliment is a speech act that is frequently used in human verbal communication. It has the functions of greeting, encouraging, expressing thanks , opening the topic and easing the conflict.Proper compliment will make the communication activities proceed smoothly, it also helps to build harmonious interpersonal relationship. Research shows that compliment and compliment response are heavily influenced by certain social and individual variables such as age, gender, level of education, social status. A considerable amount of comparative studies on compliment and compliment response has been carried out in the last few decades,but studies that focus on the relationships between power and compliments are quite few. Based on speech act theory, cooperative principle theory and politeness theory, this thesis aims to investigate influence of power relations on the employment and function of compliments.

Key words: compliment;speech act; power relations

中文摘要:在人类的言语交际中，恭维语是一种使用频率较高的言语交际行为。它具有问候、鼓励、致谢、开启话题及缓解矛盾的功能。恰当的恭维会博得对方的好感，会使交际活动顺利进行，会使人际关系和谐融洽，会帮助建立或重建人际关系。恭维语的使用受到许多因素的影响，例如性别，年龄，受教育程度，社会地位等。由于这些因素的不同，人与人之间又产生了权势关系，其中一方处于更优越的地位，即它对另一方更有权势。近年来，国内外语言界已对恭维语做了大量研究，多数都是恭维语及其回应的英汉对比研究，对权势与恭维语的关系的研究目前尚不多见，因此，本文以言语行为理论、合作原则、礼貌原则为基础，从权势地位对恭维语的使用及其功能的影响方面进行分析和探讨。

关键词：恭维语；言语行为；权势地位