Giving Compliments Communicative Functions
between Socrates and Mello. The excerpt of the conversation can be seen in the following details.
Excerpt 21 Context
: Socrates and Mello talked about their assignments and impressions of certain subjects.
Mello : So, I’m having a piece of cake. Literally.
Socrates : Literally. Not idiomatically?
Mello : No No No No No
Socrates : Oh Uhm. What the FUCK is idiomatic Ap120-23
The context describes that they talked about their assignments and impressions of certain subjects. Mello produced a phrase a piece of cake. Socrates
thought that the phrase was like the idiom, but Mello had different idea about the phrase, a piece of cake. After that, Socrates expressed bad words What the FUCK
is idiomatic in order to emphasize that he did not care whether it included idiomatic or literal meaning.
Similarly, the conversation between Socrates and Rose was also found the expression of bad words. In this conversation, Socrates was the person who also
produced bad words. The following is the excerpt of the conversation. Excerpt 22
Context : Rose and Socrates talked about the importance of
buying O’Grady’s book.
Rose : It’s O’Grady’s book that we use in linguistic class.
Socrates : Who the HELL is O’Grady?
Rose : [laughing] He is my father. Ap594-96
It can be interpreted that Rose told Socrates about the book written by O’Grady. Socrates did not really know who O’Grady was, then he used bad
words, Who the HELL is O’Grady?. This expression is to know the details about O’Grady and of course, the book.