Object – Field – CA
Pomerantz (1978) used a conversation analytical approach to investigate compliments and compliment responses (Response – Field – CA). She quotes an impressive collection of compliment sequences from actual conversations but she does not offer any statistics on the frequencies of the different sequences and therefore her data do not allow any generalizations about the object of compliments.
Golato (2005) also uses a conversation analytical approach to investigate her data of German compliments. Her work is based on “30 hours of non-elicited videotaped face-to-face conversations and 6 hours of audiotaped telephone conversation between close friends and family members” (Golato 2005: 24). She discusses the topic of the compliments very briefly. In her data collected among family and friends, 37 per cent of all compliments related to food and drink, while the others deal with appearance, ability, behaviour and possessions (Golato 2005: 83).