Blurb:

Yonghong Qian examines how hosts and guests interact at the opening stage of three Chinese TV celebrity interview programmes, with a special focus on the compliments hosts pay to the guests and the responses the guests make, in order to reveal their respective effort directed at politeness. Her study indicates that both the hosts and the guests resort to politeness strategies. The primary strategy adopted by the hosts is to observe the Approbation Maxim, exalting the positive qualities of the guests. By comparison, the guests resort to a variety of strategies of politeness, abiding by such maxims as modesty, agreement, obligation, and approbation. The use of these strategies on both sides helps to maintain or establish a harmonious relationship between them, as well as with the audience present. For the guests, it also contributes to the building and maintaining of their nice public image.