The Ultimate Compliment: A Sociological Analysis of Ceremonial Discourse

Abstract

Recent concepts and findings from conversation analysis are used as the point of departure in studying the social structure of Nobel Ceremonies. Six predictions about such ceremonies are derived from prior work on responses to compliments in ordinary conversations. Data obtained from the published texts of Les Prix Nobel confirm these predictions. It is shown that participants use the same forms of discourse to construct informal complimentary exchanges and celebratory rituals, such as the Nobel Ceremonies. It is suggested that the social structure of such ceremonies is indistinguishable from these regular patterns of discourse and that this is one reason why it has proved to be so fruitful to proceed in this analysis from the organisation of ordinary conversations to the structure of complex interactions.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Atkinson, J. M. (1983). `Two Devices for Generating Audience Approval: A Comparative Study of Public Discourse and Texts', in K. Ehlich et al . (eds.), Connectedness in Sentence, Text and Discourse, Tilburg, Tilburg Papers in Linguistics.

Atkinson, J. M. and Drew, P. (1979). Order in Court: The Organisation of Verbal Interaction in Judicial Settings, London: Macmillan.

Brannigan, A. (1981). The Social Basis of Scientific Discoveries, Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press.

Durkheim, E. (1938). The Rules of Sociological Method, The Free Press of Glencoe.

Giddens, A. (1976). The New Rules of Sociological Method, London: Hutchinson.

Gilbert, G. N. and Mulkay, M. (1984). Opening Pandora's Box: A Sociological Analysis of Scientists' Discourse, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language As Social Semiotic, London: Edward Arnold.

Heritage, J. (1984). `Recent Developments in Conversational Analysis', in Sociolinguistics Newsletter, special edition ed. T. Luckmann .

Knorr-Cetina, K. (1981). The Manufacture of Knowledge, Oxford and New York: Pergamon Press.

10.

Latour, B. and Woolgar, S. (1979). Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of Scientific Facts, London and Beverly Hills: Sage.

11.

Les Prix Nobel (1978, 1979, 1980, 1981). Stockholm, Almquist and Wiksell International.

12.

Mulkay, M. (1983). `Structural Sources of Scientific Debate: Turn-Taking, Contrast Structures and Written Discourse'. Mimeo: University of York.

13.

Mulkay, M. (1984). `Agreement and Disagreement in Scientific Debate'. Mimeo: University of York.

14.

Pomerantz, A. (1978). `Compliment Responses: Notes on the Cooperation of Multiple Constraints', in J. Schenkein (ed.), Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction. New York and London: Academic Press, chapter 3, pp. 79-112.

15.

Pomerantz, A. (1984). `Agreeing and Disagreeing with Assessments: Some Features of Preferred/Dispreferred Turn Shapes', in J. M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (eds.), Structures of Social Action, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.

16.

Popper, K. M. (1959). The Logic of Scientific Discovery, New York: Harper and Row.

17.

Potter, J. , Stringer, P. , and Wetherell, M. (1984). Social Texts and Context: Literature and Social Psychology, London: Routledge.

18.

Silverman, D. and Torode B. (1980). The Material Word, London: Routledge.

19.

Yearley, S. (1984). Science and Sociological Practice, London: Open University Press.