We usually use certain syntactic structures with the functions listed beside them in the following table.

When an interrogative structure such as Did you…?, Are they…? or Can we…? is used with the function of a question, it is described as a direct speech act. For example, when we don’t know something and we ask someone to provide the information, we usually produce a direct speech act such as Can you ride a bicycle?.

Compare that utterance with Can you pass the salt?. In this second example, we are not really asking a question about someone’s ability. In fact, we don’t normally use this structure as a question at all. We normally use it to make a request. That is, we are using a syntactic structure associated with the function of a question, but in this case with the function of a request. This is an example of an indirect speech act. Whenever one of the structures in the set above is used to perform a function other than the one listed beside it on the same line, the result is an indirect speech act.

The utterance You left the door open has a declarative structure and, as a direct speech act, would be used to make a statement. However, if you say this to someone who has just come in (and it’s really cold outside), you would probably want that person to close the door. You are not using the imperative structure. You are using a declarative structure to make a request. It’s another example of an indirect speech act.

It is possible to have strange effects if one person fails to recognize another person’s indirect speech act. Consider the following scene. A visitor to a city, carrying his luggage, looking lost, stops a passer-by.

In this scene, the visitor uses a form normally associated with a question (Do you know…?), and the passer-by answers that question literally (I know… ). That is, the passer-by is acting as if the utterance was a direct speech act instead of an indirect speech act used as a request for directions.

The main reason we use indirect speech acts seems to be that actions such as requests, presented in an indirect way (Could you open that door for me?), are generally considered to be more gentle or more polite in our society than direct speech acts (Open that door for me!). Exactly why they are considered to be more polite is based on some complex social assumptions.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

المجمع العلمي يواصل إقامة مسابقة الثقلين القرآنية لطلبة مدارس كربلاء

عضو مجلس إدارة العتبة العباسية المقدسة يطلع على آليات تطوير البرامج التعليمية في مجموعة العميد

مجموعة مناحل الكفيل تختتم مشاركتها في معرض السليمانية الدولي للزراعة والصناعات الغذائية

لتوثيق التراث العلمي.. وفد قسم شؤون المعارف يلتقي عددًا من أعلام مدينة النجف

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

ثورة طبية.. الذكاء الاصطناعي يكشف سرطان الكلى في وقت قياسي

لتعزيز الطاقة والتغلب على التعب.. عليك بـ7 طرق بسيطة

لتحسين الهضم والتحكم في الشهية.. ما أفضل وقت لتناول التمر؟

خبراء يكشفون تأثير الاستحمام في الظلام على جودة النوم !

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

إزالة ثاني أكسيد الكربون من الغلاف الجوي.. ما دور المحيطات والبحار؟

نظائر الهيليوم مقياس لاكتشاف رواسب الذهب.. كيف ذلك؟

الصين تطلق أول ناقلة نفط خام ذكية في العالم تعمل بالميثانول

الزمن على المريخ أسرع من الأرض.. دراسة علمية تكشف الفوارق

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Ambiguity

Speech acts

Maxim flouts

Flouting the maxims

Comedy pragmatics

Defeasible implicatures

The pragmatics of political interviews

Good cop, bad cop

The co-operative principle

Grice’s theory of implicature

Meaning in context

Pragmatics: saying what you mean