Current trends in Spanish compliments

Abstract

This study aims to detect the current trends in Spanish compliments and flirtatious remarks made both by women and men. A sample of 224 compliments and flirtatious remarks is examined, provided by 40 participants―university students from the University of Granada (Andalusia, Spain). We study the frequency of the most common compliments; carry out a morphological analysis of the sample by word category, and also analyse the complete vocabulary used in the sample, with the number of words and of different words, word appearance frequency in the text, included. Some characteristics and expressive resources utilized are determined. The study confirms that the compliment/flirtatious remark is by nature hyperbolic and combines a wide variety of expressive resources. In the men’s compliments the most frequent word is “bombón” [stunner/gorgeous], followed by “guapa” [pretty] and “sol” [sweetie/darling], while the women prefer “guapo” [handsome/goodlooking] and “bueno” [good]. With regard to grammatical category, the men use more nouns, followed by pronouns, verbs and adjectives in fourth position, compared to the women, who favour adjectives more, being in second place.