The backhanded compliment is a special language phenomenon. A backhanded compliment is a compliment on its appearance, but its implication meaning may be an insult. The reason why speakers do not adopt direct insult i...The backhanded compliment is a special language phenomenon. A backhanded compliment is a compliment on its appearance, but its implication meaning may be an insult. The reason why speakers do not adopt direct insult instead of using this kind of ambiguous expression is that backhanded compliments can serve two main social functions such as: being humor and acting as a face-saving strategy to mute the meaning of insult.展开更多
文摘The backhanded compliment is a special language phenomenon. A backhanded compliment is a compliment on its appearance, but its implication meaning may be an insult. The reason why speakers do not adopt direct insult instead of using this kind of ambiguous expression is that backhanded compliments can serve two main social functions such as: being humor and acting as a face-saving strategy to mute the meaning of insult.
