The Speech Act of Arabic Compliment by Instagram Users on Artists' Works

This research aimed to investigate the Arabic compliments posted by Instagram users on artists’ works on Instagram. Most of the studies have explored the use of compliments in different platforms of social media; however, compliments on artists’ works have received less attention, especially the compliments that are constructed with emojis. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the syntactic patterns of compliment, types of compliment strategies, compliment topics, and emojis used in compliments on artists’ works. Also, the similarities and differences between male and female Instagram users in the use of compliments were explored. The results found that the use of Adjective as a syntactic pattern and the use of religious expression of interjection as a compliment strategy were used more frequently than others. Also, complimenting possessions were the most frequent compliment topic, followed by personality/friendship and ability/performance. The Instagram users employed different types of emojis but the emoji of a smiling face with heart-eyes and red heart were the mostly used one in the compliments to convey enthusiastic feelings of admiration and to express admiration on the artists’ works in a non-romantic positive way, respectively. Although the male and female Instagram users showed similarities in constructing compliment, differences appeared in frequency and some compliment strategies that were preferred by a specific gender, such as expressing pride, denying, future comment, giving suggestions, and thanking. These results contribute to understanding cultural expressions of admiration and social interaction dynamics in digital contexts, offering insights into language use in social media communication.