Native English speakers often say that English-speaking
Ukrainians sound too direct. As a result, the hearer feels
pressure that can cause a communication failure. I remember
my husband selecting books to borrow in a public library of
Montreal, Canada. He put aside the books he chose and left them
unattended for a minute to go to another bookshelf. Meanwhile
another reader came by and took some of my husband’s books.
Seeing that, my husband came up to the man and said: “Please put
the books back”. The man looked offended. Definitely, he did not
expect a direct speech act. He took it as a command threatening
his “negative face”. My husband made a communicational mistake.
An indirect speech act was the only thing appropriate in the
situation. He should have said something like “Excuse me, but I
am borrowing those books.” It would have been a request
disguised as a statement.
English lessons for the Ukrainians must include Tips for
making English less direct, i.e. special information on how to
“soften” directness of speech using indirect speech acts, for
example: “Try to present your view as a question, not as a
statement. Say: “Wouldn’t that be too late?” instead of “That
will be too late.”
5. EXAMPLES OF INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS IN MODERN ENGLISH DISCOURSE
1. Fiction
Literature is often compared to a mirror reflecting life.
Writers strive to make their personages sound natural, and
utterances of literary personages can be linguistically analyzed
just like speech of real people. Here are some examples of
indirect speech acts generated by heroes of works written by
modern British and US authors.
a) In the short story “The Life Guard” by John Wain young
Jimmy Townsend works as a beach lifeguard. One morning he wants
to get rid of an unwelcome visitor in his hut at the beach and
asks him to quit using an indirect speech act (a representative
with the illocutionary force of a directive): “I’m going swimming
now. I have to keep in practice.” The visitor, however, does not
understand the implication and answers: “I am not stopping you.”
Jimmy tries another indirect speech act: “I have to leave the hut
empty.” The implication dawns on the visitor, but he is not sure:
“You mean nobody is allowed in the hut?” Jimmy uses an indirect
speech act to invite the visitor to join him for a swim (a
request disguised as a question): “Why don’t you come in swimming
with me if you want something to do?”
To prove his efficiency as an instructor, Jimmy wants to
teach swimming to an old fat lady. The woman wants Jimmy to leave
her alone, but being polite, avoids a command and uses
representatives with the illocutionary force of a directive: “The
water is cold?”; “It’s the first time I am on the beach this
year”; “I’ll never swim the Channel, that I do know.”
Scared that he will be fired because no one needs a
lifeguard at a safe beach, Jimmy plans to arrange a fake rescue.
He asks his former schoolmate to pretend drowning: “I want you to
go in swimming, pretend to get into trouble, wave to me, and I’ll
swim out and tow you back to shore.” The boy declines Jimmy’s
idea using an indirect speech act (a question with the
illocutionary force of a statement): “What d’you think I am,
daft?”
b) In Thorton Wilder’s novel titled "Heaven’s my
destination" a young man named Mr.Brush asks Mr. Bohardus, a
forensic photographer, to sell a photograph:
“- There, now, I guess, we got some good pictures.
- Do you sell copies of these, Mr.Bohardus?
- We're not allowed to, I reckon. Leastways there never was
no great demand.
- I was thinking I could buy some extra. I haven't been
taken for more than two years. I know my mother would like some.
Bohardus stared at him narrowly.
- I don't think it shows a good spirit to make fun of this
work, Mr.Brown, and I tell you I don't like it. In fifteen years
here nobody's made fun of it, not even murderers haven't.
- Believe me, Mr.Bohardus, said Brush, turning red, "I
wasn't making fun of anything. I knew you made good photos, and
that's all I thought about."
Bohardus maintained an angry silence, and when Brush was
led away refused to return his greeting”.
The question “Do you sell copies of these, Mr.Bohardus?”
has another meaning, that of a compliment. Compliments have a
restricted sphere of usage, and the photographer’s negative reply
showed that under the circumstances it was not appropriate to
compliment a policeman. The compliment was rejected in a
friendly manner. But Brush broke the standard scheme of an
indirect speech act and turned a compliment into a literal
request. The policeman was insulted: he thought that Brush mocked
at him. Brush tried to make amends, but to no avail. Brush
violated the communicative convention, and his words were
interpreted as an affront.
c) Earl Fox, the protagonist of the novel “Live with
lightning” composed by Mitchell Wilson, is a famous physicist
aged 50. His social status is high, but he falls out of love with
his science and feels inner emptiness and despair. The author
uses a rhetoric question to describe the first fit of Fox’s
indifference to physics:
“Realization had come slowly, against his reluctance. He
was listening to a paper being read, and he found himself asking
“Who cares?” It was the first open admission that curiosity was
dead.”
Rhetoric questions are pseudoquestions because the speaker
knows the answer and does not ask for information. On the
contrary, a rhetoric question conveys some information to the
hearer and seeks to convince the hearer of something [15,97].
What Fox meant by the question “Who cares?” was the statement
statement “Nobody cares.”
d) Further on in Mitchell Wilson’s novel, Fox interviews
Eric Gorin, a young scientist who applied for a job in his lab.
Closing their conversation, Fox wants to show his friendliness by
asking a formal personal question: "And did you have a pleasant
summer, Mr. Gorin?” Its nonliteral meaning is that of a
directive:
“Relax. Don’t be so tense.” Fox expects a conventional reply
“Yes, thank you”, but Gorin’s utterance breaks the rules of
speech etiquette: “A pleasant summer?” Erik was silent for the
time of two long breaths. “No, sir,” he said explosively. “I damn
well did not have a pleasant summer!” Fox is startled into
silence: Gorin not only took the question literally, but did not
follow the politeness principle as well.
e) “I'm not quite sure how long you've known the
Fieldings” (J. Fowles); "I'm dying to know what you did with all
the lions you slaughtered," said Susie Boyd (S. Maugham); “I'd
like to know why she's gone off like this.” (J. Fowles).
Indirect questions in the utterances above are compound
sentences whose principle clauses contain predicates of cognition
while subordinate clauses specify the desired information.
f) Indirect speech acts are frequent when a person of a
lower social status addresses a person of a higher social status.
Often they contain additional markers of politeness like
apologies, appellations to the hearer’s volition, etc. For
instance, a maid says to her mistress: “I'm sorry to have
disturbed you, Madam... I only wondered whether you wished to see
me.” (D. du Maurier). A visitor says to his hostess: “I only want
to know the truth, if you.will tell it to me” (E. Voynich).
g) “A question in a question” is also an indirect speech
act. The speaker asks if the hearer is knowledgeable about
something, and the informative question is included into the
whole construction as a complement. Such utterances give the
hearer a chance “to quit the game” by answering only the direct
question, e.g. "Do you happen to know when it is open?" - "Oh,
no, no. I haven't been there myself" (L. Jones).
h) A reliable way to be polite is to express a
communicative intention as a request to perform it. Such a
request can be formulated as a separate utterance, a part of an
utterance or a composite sentence, for instance: “May I ask you
where you are staying?” (C. Snow); “Might I inquire if you are
the owner?” (L. Jones); “What are your òàin ideas so far, sir, if
you don't mind me asking?” (K. Amis); “I should be very much
obliged if you would tell me as exact as possible how Mrs. Haddo,
died” (S. Maugham); “Would it bother you if I asked you a
question about how you lost your job with Axminster?” (D.
Francis).
i) A gradual transition from an indirect speech act
complying with the politeness principle to an impolite direct
speech act with the same illocutionary force is shown in an
episode of the popular cartoon “Shrek”. After Shrek had rescued
Princess Fiona from the dragon, the girl asked him to remove his
helmet, so that he could kiss her: “You did it! You rescued me!
The battle is over. You can remove your helmet now.”
The italicized utterance is an indirect speech act (a
representative with the illocutionary force of a directive).
Shrek, however, is unwilling to put off his helmet: he does
not want the girl to see that he is an ogre. To make him obey
her, Fiona uses another indirect speech act: “Why not remove your
helmet?” and then a rather impolite directive: “Remove it! Now!”
