SPEECH ACTSRequests & Refusals

ByLuis Carlos Lasso Montenegro

REQUESTERShe/he may hesitate to make requests for

fear of exposing a need or out of fear of possibly making the recipient lose

face

RECIPIENT

The recipient may feel that the request

is an intrusion on his/her freedom of

action.

FACE-THREATENING - INTRUSIVE - DEMANDINGRequests occur when the speaker infringes on

the recipient’s freedom from imposition.

Refer to contextual preconditions necessary for its performance as conventionalized in the language.R: Could you clean up the bedroom, please?

Marked explicitly as requests, such as imperatives.R: You’ll have to clean up the bedroom.

Hints - Partially referring to the object depending on contextual cluesR: Your bedroom is a total mess.

•Hearer-oriented (emphasis on the role of the hearer)Could you clean up the kitchen, please?

• Speaker-oriented (emphasis on the speaker’s role)Do you think I could borrow your notes from yesterday’s class?Can I borrow your notes from yesterday?

•Speaker- and hearer-oriented (inclusive strategy)So, could we tidy up the apartment soon?

•ImpersonalSo it might not be a bad idea to get it cleaned up.

Refusals and rejections can mean disapproval of the interlocutor's idea and

therefore, a threat to the interlocutor's face.

Refusals tend to be indirect, include mitigation, and/or delay within the turn or across turns. The delay probably shows that the refuser has a good reason for refusing and may

imply that would accept or agree instead.

• Statement of regret: I'm sorry.../I feel terrible...•Excuse, reason, explanation.• Statement of alternative: I'd rather.../I'd prefer... •Promise of future acceptance: I'll do it next time./I promise I'll.../Next time I'll...•Statement of principle: I never do business with friends•Avoidance: Nonverbal (Hesitation, physical departure, silence…) Verbal (Topic switch, joke, repetition of request,…)

•Using performative verbs/Non performative statementsI refuse to… I object to… I deny / I can´t… I won’t… I don‘t...

Refusals can be seen as a series of the following sequences:

• Pre-refusal strategies: these strategies prepare the addressee for an upcoming refusal.• Main refusal (Head Act): this strategy expresses the main refusal.•Post-refusal strategies: these strategies follow the head act and tend to emphasize, justify, mitigate, or conclude the refusal response.

Boss (Requester) I was wondering if you might be able to stay a bit late this evening, say, until about 9:00 p.m. or so.

Employee (Refuser) Uh, I’d really like toBut I can’t I’m SorryI have plansI really can’t stay

Thanks for your attention!