Interlanguage Pragmatics: Requests, Complaints, and Apologies
... Saadatmandi et al. (2018) claim that requests made as the first component of linguistic acts in adjacency pair sequences constitute a Face Threatening Act (FTA) because they put the hearer's negative face in danger. Trosborg (1995) suggested that, the production of requests should be softened by being more polite since the speaker's goal is to gain non-verbal services. The speaker can accomplish this politeness by employing linguistic indirectness. ...
... Requests distinctly demonstrate one of the realisations of Interlanguage Pragmatics. Trosborg's (1995), Campilo et al. (2009) and Cohen and Olshtain (1983) taxonomies and classifications are important for comprehending interlanguage pragmatic competence as they offer a systematic framework for analysing how language learners acquire pragmatic competencies in a second language. They are divided into several speech acts, such as, requests, apologies, and refusals, and the strategies employed to carry them out (Alzeebaree and Yavuz, 2017). ...
... Through these frameworks, the researcher aimed to classify frequent mistakes made by learners in the production of their speech acts, like excessively direct refusals, incorrect politeness techniques, or grammatical speech acts, and investigate the relationship between these and the learners' The study employed Trosborg's (1995) taxonomy (see Table 1. below), which is primarily broken down into three categories: indirect requests, conventionally indirect requests (either hearer-oriented or speaker-based), and direct requests. ...
... The simple exchange between speakers and listeners creates an interaction; its significance as a pragmatic unit is due to its ability to reflect the interplay between language, context, social interaction, cultural norms, and social roles. Requests are identified into two types: direct and indirect requests (Trosborg, 1995). Direct requests emphasize explicitness and are utilized by people of higher social standing. ...
... In analyzing the Korean drama "Queen of Tears," Trosborg's (1995) framework is instrumental in identifying and understanding the direct and indirect request strategies that are pivotal for decoding the complex speech acts depicted. Direct requests are explicit and commonly used in settings where the speaker has authority, include imperatives such as "Submit the report by today"; performatives, uses more clarity and often soften requests, exemplified by "Please attend the meeting"; and obligations that assert a duty, like "You must complete your training by the end of the week." ...
... The focus of this study is the collection and analysis of dialogues to identify and analyze the role of self-orientalism (Said,1978) in shaping the request structure made by characters within Queen of Tears through episodes 1-16. The researcher classifies requests by the theory of Trosborg (1995), Austin (1962), and Pragmatics shown in cross cultural communication by Yule (1996) using the official English translation provided by ...
This study analyzed the role of self-orientalism on the request structures in
Queen of Tears using Said's Orientalism (1978). This analysis applies Krashen's
Monitor Model (1981) and Larsen-Freeman's dynamic language theory (1997) to
examine language acquisition through both conscious and subconscious learning via
English subtitles. The analysis utilized theories like Trosborg's Taxonomy of Requests
(1995), Searle's Speech Act Theory (1962), and Yule's Pragmatics (1995) to identify and
interpret requests, bridging a research gap by connecting dialogue in media to real-life
norms. The analysis of 344 requests in "Queen of Tears" shows a tendency towards direct
(53.8%) and indirect (46.2%) communication, indicating self-orientalism's influence on
aligning with more direct styles while retaining traditional Korean Confucian norms.
This result proves the role of self-orientalism in preserving cultural authenticity
and global appeal. However, it may lead to perception of the drama's alignment with
Western customs of directness, the general audience is strongly encouraged to
critically distinguish between portrayals shown in television and realistic customs.
Keywords: Pragmatics, Self-Orientalism, Hallyu Wave, ESL, Subtitles, Requests,
Queen of Tears
... Electoral campaign speeches of five prominent Pakistani politicians were drawn through purposive sampling. The research analyzed political complaints in Pakistani politicians' electoral campaign speeches using Labov's (1972) narrative model along with Bhatia's (1993) genre analysis and Trosborg's (1995) framework of complaint strategies to evaluate their macro-structural elements and pragmatic functions and rhetorical devices. The analysis examined electoral speeches presented by leading Pakistani politicians by means of transcription followed by an investigation of recurring themes along with linguistic mechanisms and ideological constructs. ...
... Complaints are the basic elements that initiate and sustain political grievances based on the work of Bayraktaroglu (1992) in conceptualizing troubles-talk as an extended oral narrative. Complaints in general are categorized into indirect or direct expressions, which are either used as face threatening or face saving acts (Trosborg 1995). Complaints are the acts of such perceived transgression by Drew (1998), Boxer (1993aBoxer ( , 1993b, and Laforest (2002) that they were acts of assigning blame, assigning blame and demanding corrective actions. ...
... Complaints are contextual and varying in terms of directness, politeness and strategic intent (Drew, 1998, Boxer, 1993a andb). Explicit blame in direct complaints and face saving mechanisms, such as indirect complaints, are found to take place in order to keep politeness (Trosborg, 1995). Given the character of political discourse, face threatening and face saving complaints are especially important in strike that balance the two. ...
This research analyzed the role of complaints in Pakistani political campaign speeches while examining how complaints link to voter sentiment activation and political opponent discrediting and socio-political ideology strengthening. Qualitative discourse analytic approach is used in this study. Electoral campaign speeches of five prominent Pakistani politicians were drawn through purposive sampling. The research analyzed political complaints in Pakistani politicians' electoral campaign speeches using Labov's (1972) narrative model along with Bhatia's (1993) genre analysis and Trosborg's (1995) framework of complaint strategies to evaluate their macro-structural elements and pragmatic functions and rhetorical devices. The analysis examined electoral speeches presented by leading Pakistani politicians by means of transcription followed by an investigation of recurring themes along with linguistic mechanisms and ideological constructs. The analysis showed complaints function as effective persuasion devices because they use story-based arguments about unfair treatment and being mistreated and opposing authority. 1 The majority of complaints use two key tactics that combine blame attribution with expressions of annoyance to both shift responsibility and make the public more discontented (80 instances and 98 instances respectively). Complaints utilize repetition and hyperbole and emotional appeals and metaphors to improve both populist narratives and nationalistic rhetoric and religious identification. Fairclough's (1995) discourse theory regarding power received verification through this study which shows complaints function as tools for enhancing polarization and defining public perception and maintaining political control. The analysis provides a new field for political discussion studies and electoral communication to study language relationships with the ideology and power dynamics in political discourse. The framework presented here should be used to expand research in the future into complaint patterns in different political settings in different cultural domains.
... This is especially important for EFL learners, who may struggle with the subtleties of making appropriate requests and risk being perceived as rude if they fail to use indirect forms (Schauer, 2009). Including these strategies in textbooks reflects authentic language use (Bardovi-Harlig & Griffin, 2005; Ishihara & Cohen, 2010) and supports learners in selecting appropriate request strategies to navigate diverse social contexts (Takahashi, 2001;Trosborg, 1995). ...
... However, the strategies of offering repair and promising forbearance are crucial elements of apologies that are often overlooked in the analyzed textbooks. Offering repairs demonstrates a commitment to rectify the damage of an offense, enhancing the perceived sincerity of the apology and helping to restore interpersonal relationships (Trosborg, 1995). This strategy teaches EFL learners the importance of accountability and proactive action, which are particularly valued in cultures where actions speak louder than words. ...
... On the other hand, Han Lin emphasizes three-strategy patterns, as illustrated in (7) and (8). This multi-layered approach often involves the expression of apology, acknowledgment of responsibility, and an explanation, which aligns with previous studies suggesting the combining multiple strategies can significantly enhance the perceived sincerity and effectiveness of apologies (Lin & Wang, 2022;Trosborg, 1995). Acknowledging responsibility explicitly and providing an explanation reflects a deeper level of accountability, which is important for repairing interpersonal relationships (Holmes, 1990). ...
The aim of this study is twofold: (1) to examine the representations of three speech acts, i.e., requests, apologies, and compliments, within Taiwan’s junior high school English textbooks; (2) to investigate how two social variables, i.e., social status and social distance, were embedded in the three acts. The corpus comprised 90 dialogues extracted from the latest three versions of English textbooks used in Taiwan’s junior high schools. Each speech act was analyzed through specific dimensions: request strategies and modifications, apology strategies and patterns, and compliment strategies and topics. The findings indicated that the three textbook versions presented a restricted range of strategies across the three acts. Furthermore, they failed to provide a comprehensive distribution of the three acts within diverse scenarios of social status and distance. This study concluded by offering pedagogical implications aimed at addressing these textbook limitations.
... The desired act of requesting takes place post-utterance either immediately or at some later stage (Edmondson & House, 1981). It is an illocutionary act whereby a speaker asks the hearer to perform an act which is for the benefit of the speaker (Trosborg, 1995). The act can be a request for non-verbal actions or services, or it can be a request for verbal goods and services, such as requests for information. ...
... By doing so, the requester threatens the requestee's negative face (his/her want to be unimpeded). The requester may lose face if the requestee chooses not to comply with his/her wishes (positive face) (Brown & Levinson, 1987;Trosborg, 1995). However, requests are different from other impositive speech acts in that the request is solely in the interest of the speaker and normally at the cost of the hearer. ...
... In addition, elliptical forms are also considered very direct, e.g., "two hamburgers, please." They may be used in situations where goods are for sale or on distribution (Trosborg, 1995). ...
This study compares Moroccan EFL learners and American English native speakers' requesting strategies. It particularly investigates the distribution of the three main head requesting strategies, the various requesting sub-strategies and request perspectives. Towards this objective, 122 Moroccans and 36 Americans completed a discourse completion task. The results mainly revealed that both groups preferred conventionally indirect strategies over direct strategies. In addition, the two groups showed very limited use of non-conventionally indirect strategies, the "suggestory formula" sub-strategy, the "performative" sub-strategy and the "inclusive" perspective. However, Moroccan EFL learners were found to use more direct requesting strategies overall. The study concludes with several research and pedagogical implications.
... A complaint is one type of speech act; specifically, it falls into the category of expressive speech acts. According to Trosborg (2011), expressive speech acts are employed to convey the speaker's psychological state in terms of the preceding action. Moreover, the term "complain" denotes a negative reaction to an individual's conduct, a previous error, or a circumstance that fails to meet the speaker's expectations (Rodriguez, 2022). ...
... Additionally, the scope of this speech act may encompass complaints submitted by third parties (House & Kádár, 2021). The act of complaining may also be accompanied by a request for compensation, improvement, or the prevention of the recurrence of the reprehensible action, resulting in the presence of multiple illocutionary acts (Trosborg, 2011). Olshtain & Weinbach (1993) established four conditions for the complaint speech act to occur. ...
... Olshtain & Weinbach (1993) categorise complaint strategies into five categories: below the level of reproach, expression of annoyance or disapproval, explicit complaint, accusation and warning, and immediate threat. Furthermore, Trosborg (2011) categorised a variety of complaint strategies, such as no explicit communication styles that can be ascribed to established cultural values. ...
A cross-cultural pragmatics exploration, particularly in multicultural and multilingual settings like Indonesia, is important for understanding language used within a cultural framework. In the comparative study, Banjarese and Javanese languages are particularly underrepresented. Thus, the research investigates and compares complaint strategies that the Banjarese and Javanese use. The current study used a qualitative approach and the Discourse Completion Task (DCT), consisting of eight scenarios, to gather the data. The study consists of 50 participants, 25 Banjarese and 25 Javanese participants, ranging in age from 18 to 60 years old. The findings of the study found that Banjarese and Javanese participants utilise mostly the same strategy, namely dissatisfaction (DS) and request for repair (RR), and prefer to avoid conflict with the interlocutors. However, Banjarese participants typically prioritise immediate resolution, whereas Javanese participants prioritise expressing their dissatisfaction first. The research highlights the significant influence that cultural context has on complaint strategies and communication.
... The desired act of requesting takes place post-utterance either immediately or at some later stage (Edmondson & House, 1981). It is an illocutionary act whereby a speaker asks the hearer to perform an act which is for the benefit of the speaker (Trosborg, 1995). The act can be a request for non-verbal actions or services, or it can be a request for verbal goods and services, such as requests for information. ...
... By doing so, the requester threatens the requestee's negative face (his/her want to be unimpeded). The requester may lose face if the requestee chooses not to comply with his/her wishes (positive face) (Brown & Levinson, 1987;Trosborg, 1995). However, requests are different from other impositive speech acts in that the request is solely in the interest of the speaker and normally at the cost of the hearer. ...
... In addition, elliptical forms are also considered very direct, e.g., "two hamburgers, please." They may be used in situations where goods are for sale or on distribution (Trosborg, 1995). ...
This study compares Moroccan EFL learners and American English native speakers' requesting strategies. It particularly investigates the distribution of the three main head requesting strategies, the various requesting sub-strategies and request perspectives. Towards this objective, 122 Moroccans and 36 Americans completed a discourse completion task. The results mainly revealed that both groups preferred conventionally indirect strategies over direct strategies. In addition, the two groups showed very limited use of non-conventionally indirect strategies, the "suggestory formula" sub-strategy, the "performative" sub-strategy and the "inclusive" perspective. However, Moroccan EFL learners were found to use more direct requesting strategies overall. The study concludes with several research and pedagogical implications.
... An explanation is defined in this research as one or more clauses in which the participant describes the events or reasoning for why the offence happened or how it happened. Across typologies of apology acts, the provision of an explanation or account for an offence features as an apology strategy (including: Blum-Kulka, House, Kasper, 1989a;Márquez Reiter, 2000;Suszczyńska, 1999;Trosborg, 1987Trosborg, , 1995. However, scholars have rarely focussed on this apology strategy in any detail; indeed, the research cited here has either briefly commented upon explanations or only mentioned explanations among other strategies. ...
... As mentioned above, across typologies of apology acts, the provision of an explanation or account for an offence often features as an apology strategy (including: Blum-Kulka et al., 1989a;Márquez Reiter, 2000;Suszczyńska, 1999;Trosborg, 1987Trosborg, , 1995. Each of the scholars referred to here used these typologies to explore apologies in English in comparison with apologies other languages, including Dutch, Hungarian, Polish, Russian and Uruguayan Spanish. ...
... From my data, and drawing upon previous typologies of apologies (including: Blum-Kulka, Olshtain, 1984;Cheng, 2013;Nuzzo, 2007;Owen, 1983;Trosborg, 1987Trosborg, , 1995, I identified three main strategies whereby participants performed the apology speech act set. They are: explicit expression of apology; account for the offence; and remedial action. ...
This article explores differences in the realisation of one apology strategy between Australian learners of Italian, native speakers of Italian and native speakers of Australian English. The strategy in question is providing an explanation, which is here investigated through an analysis of elicited emails addressed to academic staff at university. The analysis demonstrates that while Australian learners of Italian tend to resort to this strategy as an obligatory stage in the performance of apologies, native Italian speakers frequently omit it. Such difference between the two groups is further explored through interview data and fieldnotes which present participants’ perceptions of providing an explanation, which yield insights into the rationale underlying such choices of constructing and/or omitting explanations in order to account for offences. The findings from all analyses evidence the highly contextualised nature of the speech act of apology, highlighting the Australian and Italian students’ diverse understandings of the different institutional roles of professors and tutors in their respective cultural and institutional contexts. Il ruolo della spiegazione nello scusarsi tramite le mail: un’approccio cross-culturale Questo articolo esplora le differenze nella realizzazione della strategia di scusarsi fra tre gruppi: gli apprendenti l’taliano LS australiani, parlanti nativi di italiano ed i parlanti nativi dell’inglese australiano. Specificamente, la strategia in questione è fornire una spiegazione, la quale è studiata attraverso un’analisi delle mail indirizzate agli staff accademici all’università. L’analisi dimostra che, mentre gli apprendenti australiani tendono di usare questa strategia come una fase obbligatoria nella formazione delle scuse, spesso i parlanti nativi dell’italiano l’omettono. Questa differenza tra i due gruppi viene esplorata ulteriormente con dati tratti dalle interviste e dai fieldnotes che presentono le percezioni dei partecipanti riguardo il fornire una spiegazione. Queste percezioni offrono approfondimenti riguardo alla logica sottostante la scelta di costruire e/o omettere le spiegazioni per le offese. I risultati delle analisi evidenziano la natura altamente contestualizzata dell’atto di scusarsi, mettendo in luce le diverse comprensioni degli studenti australiani e degli studenti italiani circa i ruoli istituzionali dei professori e dei tutor nei relativi contesti culturali e istituzionali.
... You've done it again!". Other examples of strategies included in the categories just discussed are in Trosborg (1995) and Nuzzo (2007). ...
... The tone and volume of the voice are also important in identifying an act of complaining: a faster rhytm and a higher tone of voice often characterise the emotional involvement (anger, wrath) of the complainer. The frequency, sequence and content of strategies are not universal, but vary according to linguistic and cultural factors (Trosborg, 1995). ...
... Another Supportive Act is the Preparator, in which the speaker warns the interlocutor that a complaint is about to begin, as in the following example: "Hi, I'd like to talk for a moment about what happened yesterday". The disarmer on the other hand, emphasises the speaker's awareness of the imposing nature of the complaint and shows an avoiding of an act that is too face threatening with a benevolent attitude towards the interlocutor (Trosborg, 1995;Nuzzo, 2007: 120). ...
This study analyzes the production of complaint acts in both L2 Italian and native Italian. It focuses on examining the relationship between the prosodic indices used by Italian learners and native speakers during the production of complaints, as well as the (socio)pragmatic strategies employed to execute these acts. To this end, a sample of protests produced by Arabic-speaking and Spanish-speaking learners, as well as by a group of native speakers through oral role-plays, to analysis was analysed from both a socio-pragmatic and a phonetic perspective. The preliminary results indicate a diverse range of outcomes. The learners, although exhibiting some differences between the two groups, tend to utilise more direct strategies and fewer modifications, which at times results in a reduction in politeness, particularly in situations of greater social distance. The prosodic analysis, which was limited to the study of the directive speech acts present in the complaints, revealed the presence of narrow pitch ranges and shorter durations of nuclear vowels in learners. Furthermore, the orders produced by the learners exhibited a less prominent final falling of the intonation pattern, resulting in a more mitigated prosody than that observed in the native data. This study can contribute to a deeper understanding of the interlinguistic competencies of learners from more distant languages and cultures and serve as a valuable resource for teaching linguistic acts that are considered more complex due to their higher face-threatening nature.
... WhatsApp group conversation even consist of complaining speech act (Kaderiyah, Sasongko, & Agan, 2022). Complaining speech acts (CSA) threaten the interlocutor because they are disruptive or unsatisfactory (Trosborg, 1995). They emphasize that speakers have neglected the hearer's faces and feelings (Tanck, 2002). ...
... Data were analyzed using descriptive and interpretive techniques. Descriptive analysis was carried on the distribution of CSA based on categories and strategies Trosborg (1995) associated with gender and profesion (Trosborg, 1995). The interpretive method was used to analyze the content of the CSA by inserting it into the component table. ...
... Data were analyzed using descriptive and interpretive techniques. Descriptive analysis was carried on the distribution of CSA based on categories and strategies Trosborg (1995) associated with gender and profesion (Trosborg, 1995). The interpretive method was used to analyze the content of the CSA by inserting it into the component table. ...
This qualitative study applies a pragmatic approach that investigates the complaining speech act (CSA) used by male and female music teachers based on the substansion of the Solo Song Competition in WhatsApp Group. Data were collected from the utterances of 13 participants using note-taking. The results indicated several findings. First, male music teachers have the highest preference for using the expression of disapproval with annoyance in the substance of after TM. In contrast, female music teachers have the highest preference for using the hint and the blame with explicit blame for person in the substance of before TM. The reason is not only about a high pressure from the school, parents, and students regarding the competitions, but also about dissatisfaction, dislike, and worry with a situation that is perceived as unfair, unprofessional, or harmful. Third, based on the comparison of the result of this study and previous researches reveals that gender influenced the choice of CSA usage. The results revealed that most of the complaints were related to issues regarding the competition regulations after TM. The competition regulations that were highly complained by both male and female music teachers were the inappropriate music instruments for men and women. The results also indicated that most of the complaints were addressed to the coordinator of the competition committee. The complaints submitted were a result of the untrustworthiness of male and female music teachers to the competition committee
... These opposing perceptions of the act of apologizing also influence the way in which apologies are realized and negotiated in verbal exchanges. Many studies have shown that the communicative act of apologizing may be performed by means of a single speech act or a combination of several speech acts, resulting into a speech act set, an apology event or a communicative act (Trosborg, 1995). In an apology event, for instance, the first apology act constitutes the core unit of the communicative act and the other speech acts function as secondary units or modification devices. ...
... Olshtain and Cohen, 1983, Blum-Kulka et. al, 1989, Trosborg 1995, Marquez Reiter, 2000, in which apologies are examined with respect to the level of directness of an apology act, the number of moves employed in an apology utterance and the types of additional moves used to modify an apology act. These studies show that when a speaker opts to apologize for an offense they committed, they may select one of the following strategies or combine many of them. ...
This study examines the influence of gender on apology realization by Cameroon French speakers. It is based on data provided by 40 University students (20 males and 20 females) in an apology-provoking situation involving friends. The examples were analyzed according to the types of direct and indirect apology strategies as well as types of external modifiers found. The results reveal differences across both groups regarding choices and realizations of direct and indirect apologies as well as types of external modifiers used. The paper is a call for more studies on gender pragmatic variation in Cameroon French.
... Comme des études antérieures (cf. Trosborg, 1995, Kraft et Geluykens 2002, Laforest 2002, Meinl, 2018 l'ont relevé, les locuteurs disposent d'une variété de formulations pour dire leur mécontentement. Ils peuvent énoncer leurs reproches de manière brève, c'est-à-dire à l'aide de micro-actes directs ou indirects, ou de manière complexe, moyennant des séquences de plusieurs micro-actes. ...
... D'après la classification de Riou (2013 : 104 -121), l'opération d'adoucissement s'appuie sur des procédés consistant à « annoncer, réparer, désarmer, minimiser, remplacer, modaliser l'acte menaçant », « donner des indices », « amadouer l'interlocuteur », « modaliser son discours », « utiliser des distanciateurs ». Ces outils sont répartis, selon Trosborg (1995), dans deux catégories, selon qu'ils se trouvent au sein des actes centraux, c'est-à-dire au coeur des reproches au sens strict (procédés internes) ou sont utilisés avant et/ou après les actes de reproches (procédés externes). Autrement dit, la modification peut être interne ou externe. ...
p>Cette étude porte sur un aspect du discours réprobateur en milieu francophone au Cameroun. Elle examine des stratégies pragmatiques et linguistiques utilisées pour formuler des reproches destinés à une personne inconnue dans un espace public. L’analyse est motivée par le postulat que la transgression d’une norme sociale est susceptible d’enclencher un « discours moralisateur - réprobateur » dont la réalisation s’appuie soit sur des stratégies destinées à faire perdre la face à l’allocutaire et conduisant à une violence verbale accrue ou soit sur des stratégies visant à ménager la face d’autrui et à désamorcer la situation conflictuelle. Pour ce faire, l’analyse s'est effectuée sur un corpus de données recueillies auprès de 208 répondants. Ces données ont été scrutées à la lumière des théories des faces, de la politesse et de l’impolitesse. Il ressort des analyses que divers types d’actes de langage à visée réprobatrice sont sollicités. Du point de vue de la gestion des faces, les résultats révèlent que, si dans de nombreux cas les locuteurs réprouvent impoliment le comportement de leurs interlocuteurs, égratignant ainsi les faces positives et négatives de ces derniers, il y a aussi des cas où l’acte réprobateur est atténué, au moyen d’une variété de procédés, lesquels permettent d’établir un équilibre entre la réalisation de l’acte menaçant et la préservation de l’harmonie relationnelle.
This article deals with an aspect of complaint discourse in French-speaking setting in Cameroon. It examines pragmatic and linguistic strategies used for complaining to a stranger in a public space. The analysis is motivated by the assumption that social norm violation is likely to generate a moral discourse from the interlocutor, who may either choose face-threatening strategies, thus leading to a more violent exchange, or use face-saving strategies aimed at mitigating the conflict. The study is based on data produced by 208 respondents and these examples were analyzed within the frameworks of rapport management, politeness and impoliteness. The results indicate that different types of discourse strategies are used for making complaints. Regarding face-work, the findings show that, although several cases of rapport-challenging or intensified complaints occur in the data, some interlocutors attempt to strike a balance between complaining and preserving social harmony by softening their complaints through a wide range of devices.
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... DeCapua 1989; Murphy and Neu 2006), and internal modifiers (e.g. Trosborg 1995). Studies have illuminated that L2 proficiency (e.g. ...
... Some studies (e.g. Azarmi and Behnam 2012;Trosborg 1995) have demonstrated that the complaint strategies of English learners are molded by considerations of social distance. In contrast, our study, along with the research by Olshtain and Weinbach (1993), finds no significant differences in the directness of complaints among L2 learners when interacting with acquaintances versus strangers. ...
The study employs role-play tasks to investigate the realization of speech acts of complaint among 18 pairs of advanced Chinese EFL learners in scenarios of different languages and social distances from a multimodal perspective. The results demonstrate two major conclusions. 1) In terms of the language used by the interlocutors, it had an effect on their choices of complaint strategies. In the Chinese scenarios, verbal complaints were more direct and rapid; in contrast, the English scenarios witnessed a process from implicit to explicit expression of complaint. In terms of the nonverbal modes in the two scenarios, these presented significant differences, which was particularly evident in the greater frequency of gestures and head movements in the English scenarios compared to their Chinese counterparts. 2) Social distance exerted no influence on the verbal level of complaint, but it had a pronounced effect on nonverbal performances, which is manifested in that they adopted more gestures and head movements to acquaintances than to strangers. This study provides reference for empirical research on L2 pragmatics from a multimodal perspective.
... Crystal's definition points to the importance of language use in context, which encompasses both spoken and written forms concentrating on the individual, whose utterance is influenced by both the interlocutor and the sociocultural background of the particular situation in which the language is employed. Others view pragmatics as the study of applied linguistics that focuses on how language usage interacts with social and interpersonal contexts (Roever, 2010), as a field within semiotics that examines the relationship between linguistic expressions and their users (Trosborg, 1995), or a study dealing with the biotic aspects of semiotics, in other words, all the phenomena occurring around the functioning of signs (Levinson, 1983). Pragmatics analyses linguistic terms in utterances, interrupts people's meanings in various contexts, and understands how context influences messages (Trosborg, 1995). ...
... Others view pragmatics as the study of applied linguistics that focuses on how language usage interacts with social and interpersonal contexts (Roever, 2010), as a field within semiotics that examines the relationship between linguistic expressions and their users (Trosborg, 1995), or a study dealing with the biotic aspects of semiotics, in other words, all the phenomena occurring around the functioning of signs (Levinson, 1983). Pragmatics analyses linguistic terms in utterances, interrupts people's meanings in various contexts, and understands how context influences messages (Trosborg, 1995). ...
... The speech act of requesting is classified as a direction. Because the requester requests the hearer to take a specific action only for the requester's advantage, Trosborg (1995) views the act of request as directive. These commands aim to persuade the recipient to carry out an action that the speaker desires but which is not always something that would occur naturally. ...
... Additionally, Bachman and Palmer (1996) examined the many kinds of requests that are made in romance movie scripts in order to characterize the pramalinguistic forms of those requests and to identify the different kinds of politeness strategies that are employed in the film. Through data analysis, the author characterizes the kind of request strategy, the pragma linguistic form of request using Trosborg (1995), and the politeness strategies using Brown and Levinson's (1987) theory. The study's findings demonstrate that there are numerous kinds of request techniques from the sixty-three data points (100%) included in this film. ...
... The adoption of Weigand's MGM model fits this study since it depends on a dialogue analytic approach. Concerning the coding method, the data is mostly based on an adaptation of Trosborg's (1995) model for complaints. So as to reach the abovementioned objectives, the following research questions will be addressed in this study: a) How do Moroccan Soth-eastern Amazigh native speakers of Tamazight realize the speech act of complaining? ...
... Moreover, the participants' use of blame, especially modified blame, is intended to create and maintain social relations, rather than confrontational forms of communication. This commonly used strategy is regarded as a more direct complaint than accusations (Trosborg, 1995). This shows that these different interpretations of "blaming" stresses the importance of carefully considering the cultural values of interlocutors in explaining dialogic interaction in line with Weigand's (2009) Principle of Different Worlds. ...
The current study is looking into the realization patterns of complaints being fulfilled in the Moroccan SouthEastern Amazigh variety via adopting a dialogue analytical approach. To get a better understanding of how the speech act of complaining works in Moroccan SouthEastern Amazigh, 60 participants were involved in four role-plays. The results revealed that the most chosen complaint strategies were directive acts and blaming (modified blame). The findings indicate that a considerable number of participants chose not to make the complaint to avoid embarrassment and causing damage. Moreover, the subjects overused the lexical downgrader /ṣaḥa/ 'please' alongside religious expressions. Participants as well appear to use more cooperative persuasion methods during complaints than confrontational ones to maintain harmony and solidarity.
... A classification framework of these components has been formulated and proven valid across languages in the findings of the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realisation Project by Blum-Kulka et al. (1989). Furthermore, Trosborg (1995) suggested an additional classification of requests depending on the level of directness. In this study, both schemes are employed with some adaptations in analysing requests strategies, with emphasis on the head act and external modifiers (supportive moves). ...
... The analysis of the internal modifiers like downgraders, upgraders, and alerters are beyond the scope of this research. Blum-Kulka (1989) and Trosborg (1995) proposed distinct categorisations of request strategies, building upon earlier classifications that arranged these strategies according to levels of indirectness. The specific categorisation of request strategies used in this study is outlined in Table 1, as adapted from Blum-Kulka (1989, p. 202). ...
This article examines the role of pragmatic instruction on developing pragmatic competence in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) learners, particularly focusing on the speech act of requests. While research has long explored various factors influencing pragmatic competence, including instructional methods, this study specifically addresses how targeted pragmatic instruction impacts learners over time. Conducted as a qualitative longitudinal study, this research examines changes in learners’ pragmatic performance over a four-week period, during which participants completed both written and oral discourse completion tasks. Findings suggest that pragmatic instruction significantly enhances learners’ pragmatic abilities. Notably, participants have demonstrated a greater range of request strategies supportive moves, reflecting increased awareness of the social and cultural implications of their requests. These findings indicate the vital role of pragmatic instruction in enhancing learners’ ability to adapt their language use based on social variables such as power dynamics and distance. The study also highlights the importance of integrating pragmatic instruction into EAP curricula to improve learners’ communicative competence, enabling them to navigate both academic and social interactions with greater sensitivity and appropriateness.
... First of all, according to the canonical model of apologies, an apology can be realized either explicitly or implicitly (cf., among others, Olshtain and Cohen 1983;Blum-Kulka et al. 1989;Holmes 1990;Trosborg 1995;Márquez-Reiter 2000;Harris et al. 2006;González-Cruz 2012). Instances of the latter, indirect, strategies are for example giving an explanation (Parece que hoy no me concentro en nada 'I just can't seem to concentrate today'), an offer of redress (Le puedo comprar uno nuevo 'I can buy you a new one') or a promise of forbearance (No volverá a ocurrir 'It won't happen again'). 2 Alternatively, speakers can recur to explicit apologies which appear in the form of so-called illocutionary force indicating devices (IFIDs) as defined by Searle (1969, p. 62). ...
This study investigates the contemporary grammaticalized uses of perdón (‘sorry’) in two varieties of Spanish, namely Mexican and Peninsular Spanish. Methodologically, the investigation is based on a taxonomy of offenses, organized around the concept of ‘face’ and based on spoken data of Spanish from Mexico and Spain. This taxonomy turns out to be a fruitful methodological tool for the analysis of apologetic markers: it does not only offer usage-based evidence for previous theorizing concerning the grammaticalization process of apologetic markers, but also leads to a refinement of these previous results from a contrastive point of view. Evidence from both corpora suggests a more advanced stage in the grammaticalization process of perdón in Mexican Spanish, where it can be used not only as a self-face-saving device geared towards the positive face of the speaker, but also in turn-taking contexts oriented towards the negative face of the interlocutor. Peninsular Spanish, on the other hand, resorts to a more varied gamut of apologetic markers in these contexts.
... Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/applij/advance-article/doi/10.1093/applin/amaf019/8116765 by UQ Library user on 21 April 2025 There is also a growing body of studies of indirect complaints that are designed to elicit empathy or affiliation in L2 settings (Trosborg 1995;Yuan and Zhang 2018), although very few studies pay attention to the sequential development of those complaints. One important exception is Skogmyr Marian's (2021) recent study of indirect complaints by L2 speakers of French in which she demonstrates that while both elementary and more advanced L2 speakers of French initiate these complaint sequences with positively valenced prefaces, the latter also deploy precomplaint sequences that provide accounts for and thereby legitimize the projected complaint. ...
Sometimes we face material or practical troubles that require assistance from others to be resolved. While assistance can be mobilized through requests for assistance, it can also be mobilized through complaints. However, while L2 requests have been the object of numerous studies, there has been very little work examining how complaints can be used by L2 speakers to mobilize assistance. In this article, we examine how troubles-complaints are used by Saudi L2 speakers of English as a method by which to mobilize assistance. It is suggested that mobilizing assistance through troubles-complaints provides for the negotiation of the material and moral contingencies associated with any such assistance. It is also suggested that the mobilization of requests through complaints is preferred over requests for assistance when the nature of assistance and who will provide it needs to be negotiated. Leading with requests for assistance in such cases thus occasions interactional misalignment. We conclude that the learning and teaching of pragmatic competence needs to go beyond traditional sets of speech acts such as requests.
... As Berg et al. (2009) highlight, as students study the target language for a longer period and have better command in terms of linguistic competence, they exert more control over it and they could gain better intercultural communication skills. This competency might derive from the fact that they were better at inferencing, understanding and using speech acts effectively and employing hedging in their communication (Hişmanoğlu, 2011;Trosborg, 2011). ...
Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) has gained importance in language classes to assist EFL learners who lack exposure to the target language. To address potential communication difficulties, this study investigates EFL students' ICC levels and its components (knowledge, skill, attitude) as well as the relationship between their achievement—measured by midterm exam scores—language proficiency, and ICC. A quantitative study was conducted with 172 EFL learners at a Turkish university's preparatory program. Participants completed an ICC questionnaire, and their midterm exam scores were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and MANOVA in SPSS. The findings reveal that proficiency level (A2 to C1) has a significant effect on overall ICC scores. When examining ICC components, proficiency level and learners’ achievement scores significantly impacts attitude and skill, but not knowledge. However, the interaction between proficiency and achievement does not significantly affect ICC. The significant influence of proficiency level on overall ICC scores, particularly in attitude and skill, highlights the close relationship between linguistic competence and learners’ ability to adapt to intercultural contexts. However, the lack of effect on the knowledge component suggests a need for explicit cultural instruction to complement linguistic development. These findings highlight the need for language curricula that combine intercultural education with linguistic development to foster both communication skills and cultural knowledge.
... Considerations, according to West and Zimmerman (1985), such as master identities (sex, age, and social class) and situated identities (shaped by social settings), which formerly granted John a comprehensive power, are now of no use in the confrontation between John, the professor, and Carol, the اسا الدر مجلة السنة المستدامة. ت Trosborg (1995) indicates that a complaint is an instance of the conflictive function, encompassing acts of threatening, accusing, and reprimands (312). The complaint which Carol introduces to the Tenure Committee is full of accusations which simultaneously pose a threat to John"s academic career and future life. ...
The current study applies the theory of speech acts to David Mamet‟s „Oleanna‟. The basic
premise of speech act theory is that speakers use words not only to present information but
also to perform actions such as commanding or requesting. This study argues that the
speech acts used can also reflect the social status of the speaker and his/her dominance
over the communication in a given discourse context. Drawing upon West and
Zimmerman‟s (1985) concept of “participant identities”, the current study explores the
(mis)use of power, exploitation, and self-assertion in David Mamet‟s „Oleanna‟. This play
is suitable to investigate since it is about a reverse in power between a professor and his
student in an academic setting. Whereas the dominant is supposed to be John, the
professor, the unfolding events will show a reverse in power as Carol, the student, gains
newfound power. The study proposes that this reverse of power takes place the moment the
professor involves in a personal conversation about his private life with his student. This
study reaches at the conclusion that dramatic works serve as an ideal field for the
investigation of speech acts within literary contexts. In addition, transformation of power
is obvious in such a literary work together with the evident use of power, manipulation and
self-assertion.
Keywords: )Speech Acts Theory; Power; Identity; Accusation(s); Threat(.
... In the field of pragmatics, the work by [16] pioneered the classification of complaints into five distinct types: a) Beyond Reproach, b) Explicit Complaint, c) Statement of Disapproval, d) Warning, and e) Allegation. However, Trosborg et al.'s foundational study [31] identified four primary levels of complaint severity: a) Implicit Reproach Absent, b) Disapproval, c) Accusation, and d) Blame. Gradually, Transformers-based Complaint categorization based on their severity criteria was developed by [10]. ...
In today's competitive marketing landscape, effective complaint management is crucial for customer service and business success. Video complaints, integrating text and image content, offer invaluable insights by addressing customer grievances and delineating product benefits and drawbacks. However, comprehending nuanced complaint aspects within vast daily multimodal financial data remains a formidable challenge. Addressing this gap, we have curated a proprietary multimodal video complaint dataset comprising 433 publicly accessible instances. Each instance is meticulously annotated at the utterance level, encompassing five distinct categories of financial aspects and their associated complaint labels. To support this endeavour, we introduce Solution 3.0, a model designed for multimodal aspect-based complaint identification task. Solution 3.0 is tailored to perform three key tasks: 1) handling multimodal features ( audio and video), 2) facilitating multilabel aspect classification, and 3) conducting multitasking for aspect classifications and complaint identification parallelly. Solution 3.0 utilizes a CLIP-based dual frozen encoder with an integrated image segment encoder for global feature fusion, enhanced by contextual attention (ISEC) to improve accuracy and efficiency. Our proposed framework surpasses current multimodal baselines, exhibiting superior performance across nearly all metrics by opening new ways to strengthen appropriate customer care initiatives and effectively assisting individuals in resolving their problems.
... Searle (1979) has posited that complaints are illocutionary acts. So far, scholars have postulated various criteria to analyze the complaints (Nuzzo, 2007;Trosborg, 1995). The present study applies the modified version of Nuzzo's criteria by Marocchini (2017) and Table 1 illustrates the classification of complaints analysis created by her. ...
Politeness is a strategy functioning to show respect to the interlocutor, as well as to express certain intentions without directly violating politeness norms. In the context of complaints, politeness strategies are used to form certain meaning constructions intended by customers. This article aims to identify the types of complaints and politeness strategies used by English and Turkish speakers on the Internet. This study employs a qualitative research design with an interpretation approach to data in the form of written utterances. The data sources are phrases and sentences in Turkish and English. Data were collected from two websites designed for English complaints and Turkish complaints. The data collection technique was by making corpus data entries with the limitation of criteria of clothing, home appliances, and beverage companies. The number of data selected for the data corpus was 100 complaints from each website. The data were analyzed by identifying the types of politeness strategies and types of complaints that emerged from the speech used by complainers in English and Turkish. The classified data is then further interpreted in the context of low and high culture, and the findings are presented in the form of differences in the use of strategies by English and Turkish customers. The results of the data analysis and interpretation show significant differences between English-speaking customers and Turkish-speaking customers in the use of politeness strategies to give complaints. These contrasting differences are strongly influenced by cultural factors and the culture of the speakers of a language. Further investigation has been carried out in discussion and the importance of politeness strategies in English language teaching context were explained.
... Requesting speech acts are one of the students' main communicative purposes for using e-mail as they go about their academic business, to obtain feedback, to make appointments, to ask for extensions of time for assignment submission, etc. A request can be defined as a direct speech act in which the speaker asks the hearer to perform an action or provide information that is for the limited interest of the speaker (Trosborg, 1995). According to Brown and Levinson (1987), a request is one of the most face-threatening forms of speech act, especially in a student-lecturer context. ...
This study aimed to explore the politeness phenomenon in Libyan postgraduate students' e-mail requests to their lecturers based at four top-ranked Malaysian universities: University of Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia, and Universiti Utara Malaysia. The data consisted of 109 e-mail requests to faculty written by 20 Libyan postgraduate students who were studying in Malaysia. The data was analyzed by adopting Brown and Levinson (1987) politeness theory which is considered as a plausible analytical framework to identify politeness strategies. The research method and design used in this study was essentially qualitative approach. The findings of the current study revealed that the Libyan postgraduate students applied mostly negative politeness strategies more than the other politeness strategies. This study argues that these e-mails which featuring a high level of directness, displayed a fundamental inadequacy in the use of politeness strategies, thus creating potentially a higher chance of pragmatic failure.
... They are known to be well-mannered especially to those who are older or higher than them in status. An apologa is also necessary whan a linguistic expression has slighted anotler person (Trosborg, 1995) like fighting back an elderly with an alrogant tone which is not at all tolerated in Philippine culture. Filipino culture gives high value on courtesy. ...
This study aims to develop tools that would resonate to the local needs of Filipino ESL learners in assessing their pragmatic competence along comprehension and production. The tools were developed in a number of stages such as generating speech acts situations, likelihood investigation, organization of situations, checking for content validity and checking for reliability. Hence, the situations for the speech acts addressed in the study were appropriate and contextualized to Filipino learners. The research instruments developed were a pragmatic comprehension test and a pragmatic production task. These were administered to 70 BSE English pre-service teachers. The results revealed that the Filipino ESL learners’ level of pragmatic comprehension is very high; however, their pragmatic production is slightly off compared to native speakers but is overall acceptable. The results suggest that they still have difficulties with linguistic forms specifically grammatical and lexical proficiency in their production of speech acts and that their ability to comprehend and produce contextually appropriate utterances still needs to be promoted.
... It is usually easy for others to understand your intended meaning when you apologize in your mother tongue. Yet, cultural norms and idiomatic expressions can often prevent many second language speakers from fully grasping the nuances behind different forms of apologies, which can vary in how much they risk face loss (Trosborg 1995). For instance, you might choose a defensive stance to minimize embarrassment or opt for a more protective approach to safeguard the other person's face. ...
This study examines intercultural pragmatic competence in the way advanced Turkish learners of English realize the act of apologizing in English. The data were obtained from six dialogic scenarios of apologies that the students acted out in class. The main objective was to explore role of gender and directness in the use of apology strategies (AS) in English as a foreign language (EFL) within the framework of the Mixed Game Model. In this dialogic model, the situation-based act-outs were video-recorded, transcribed, and coded either as direct or indirect AS use. The use of illocutionary force indicating deceives as a direct AS and assuming responsibility and offering repair as indirect AS use stood out for both groups. Males were more indirect in their AS than females. The paper concludes that directness, rather than gender, is a key predictor in realizing apologies in a second language.
... In addition to the expressive component, complaints can also be accompanied by a request for redress (directive component) towards the interlocutor, who is considered directly or indirectly responsible for the negative event. Studies conducted from a contrastive and acquisitional perspective have highlighted the difficulties that learners have in realising this act appropriately, as they tend to be more abrupt and aggressive (Murphy, Neu, 1996) and at the same time less effective (Trosborg, 1995) than native speakers. In Nuzzo's (2007) analysis of complaints in L2 Italian learners, it appears that complaints are a challenge, even for learners with a moderate level of competence, since there are no highly conventionalised expressions in Italian for conveying complaints, especially most of the micro-acts and supportive acts that characterise them (Nuzzo, 2007: 136). ...
This study aims to explore the use of discourse markers (DMs) in complaints by native and non-native speakers of Italian, focusing on how DMs are employed across different proficiency levels. The goal is to understand the role of DMs in mitigating, intensifying, or structuring complaints in Italian language learners at A1-A2 and B1-B2 levels compared to native speakers. The data were collected through written discourse completion tasks (DCTs), which elicited participants’ responses in various complaint scenarios. The quantitative analysis revealed distinct patterns in DM usage among the three groups, with A1-A2 learners displaying a higher frequency but narrower variety of DMs compared to more advanced learners and native speakers. The DMs used by lower-level learners were mainly interactional, serving to seek attention and employ basic politeness strategies. At the B1-B2 level, a broader range of DMs was observed, fulfilling functions such as mitigating or reinforcing the complaint, modulating certainty, and managing the expressive tone of the interaction. Native speakers showed the most structured complaints and utilized a diverse array of DMs to balance the illocutionary force of their complaints. A consistent finding across all groups was the prevalent use of the dyad scusa/scusi ma highlighting its function in introducing criticism and expressing contrasts in complaint scenarios. Esplorare i marcatori del discorso nelle proteste: un’analisi comparativa di parlanti nativi e non nativi italiani Questo studio si propone di esplorare l’uso dei segnali discorsivi (SD) nelle proteste di parlanti nativi e non nativi di italiano, concentrandosi su come vengano impiegati nei diversi livelli di competenza. L’obiettivo è comprendere il ruolo dei SD nell’attenuare, intensificare o strutturare le proteste tra apprendenti di italiano ai livelli A1-A2 e B1-B2 rispetto ai parlanti nativi. I dati sono stati raccolti attraverso DCT scritti, che hanno sollecitato risposte in diversi scenari. L’analisi quantitativa ha rivelato distinti patterns nell’uso dei SD tra i tre gruppi: gli apprendenti A1-A2 mostrano una frequenza maggiore ma una varietà minore rispetto a quelli più avanzati e ai parlanti nativi. I segnali utilizzati dai principianti erano prevalentemente interazionali, volti a richiamare l’attenzione e a impiegare strategie di cortesia molto semplici. Al livello B1-B2 si osserva una gamma più ampia di SD, che servono a mitigare o rinforzare la protesta, modulare la certezza e gestire il tono espressivo dell’interazione. I parlanti nativi presentano atti più strutturati e utilizzano una varietà diversificata di SD per bilanciare la forza illocutiva delle loro proteste. Un risultato comune a tutti i gruppi è l’uso prevalente della diade scusa/scusi ma, che evidenzia la sua funzione nell’introdurre critiche ed esprimere contrasti nei diversi scenari esaminati.
... Some corpora, such as the British National Corpus (BNC) or the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), have already been pragmatically annotated, which makes it easier for researchers to extract relevant data for speech act analysis. However, when dealing with untagged corpora, researchers may need to develop their own annotation schemes or rely on automatic tagging tools, though these methods require validation to ensure accuracy (Trosborg 1995). ...
This study was motivated by the need to understand the ways users perform speech acts on social media platforms, specifically Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and how these acts differ between public and private contexts. The purpose was to analyse the frequencies and types of speech acts (requests, apologies, and compliments) and identify the linguistic and pragmatic strategies employed. Using a mixed-methods research design, a corpus of 3 million posts was collected and analysed. Stratified random sampling ensured a balanced representation of speech acts, and both manual annotation and machine learning techniques were used for classification. Three major findings emerged: first, requests were significantly more frequent and direct in private messages than in public posts across all platforms; second, public apologies were more formal and detailed, while private apologies were concise and personal; third, Instagram had the highest frequency of compliments, with public posts being more explicit and enthusiastic compared to private messages. The study concluded that context and platform-specific features heavily influence communication strategies. These insights advance theoretical understanding and offer practical applications for optimizing social media communication.
... For this reason, some of the situations are adopted from other studies because they are considered appropriate for the frame of the most relevant contextual variables required in the study. Specifically, this research study flexibly adapts the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realisation Patterns (CCSARP) for apologies by Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984), Eisenstein andBodman (1993), and Trosborg (1995). ...
This study hypothesises that the functions of apology strategies are culture�specific. It is based on the assumption that certain contextual and cultural
factors might influence the production and perception of apologies across
languages and cultures. The present study investigates apology strategies in
Moroccan Arabic, which has not received much attention in cross-cultural
pragmatic research. This study examines data from 200 Moroccan Arabic
native speakers. It adopts the more structured approach of quantitative
research by using a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) to elicit the production
of apologies from 10 different social situations between hypothetical
interactants. Although this is a pioneering study in its societal context, its main
results support earlier findings suggesting the universality of apology
strategies; however, the illocutionary forces assigned to these strategies and
the identification of new apology strategies reinforce the culture-specific aspect
of apologies.
... Economidou-Kogetsidis (2008) explains that Internal modification 'appeals to positive politeness by stressing in-group membership, affect and involvement', whereas external modification 'appeals to the interlocutor as a rational agent in need of persuasion as required by the principle of independence tenet of negative politeness." Numerous typologies of modification request strategies have been reported in different studies and adopted as a framework of analysis by researchers in interlanguage pragmatics (House and Kasper, 1981, Faerch and Kasper, 1989, Trosborg, 1995, Soler, Jorda, and Martinez-Flor, 2005). In the present study, Faerch and Kasper's (1989) classification is adopted because first it is well suited to the pragmalinguistic analysis of request modification strategies and second because it has gained worldwide popularity among researchers in the field since it was part of the cross-cultural speech act realization project. ...
This study investigates how Moroccan university students of English use modification strategies to either mitigate or aggravate their requests as compared to American native speakers of English. The data were collected by means of a written discourse completion task and were analyzed quantitatively based on Faerch and Kasper’s (1989) typology of request modification categories. The analysis showed significant differences between American native speakers and Moroccan university students at the level of external and internal modification. While Americans used more mitigating supportive moves, Moroccans’ requests displayed more lexical/phrasal downgraders. However, the differences at the level of alerters, syntactic downgraders, upgraders, and aggravating supportive moves were not significant. The study concludes with some implications about the importance and relevance of modification categories in the acquisition and teaching of requests in a foreign language.
The current study compares the realization of the speech acts of complaints and responding to complaints by Arabs versus Westerners in the X accounts of British Airways versus Saudi Airlines. We compiled 400 posts from the X accounts of the two airlines and coded them for complaint and complaint-response strategies as well as external and internal modifiers. The results of the Chi-square tests show that the Western customers of the British Airways used significantly more disapproval and accusation strategies than the Arab customers of the Saudi Airlines while the latter customers showed a stronger preference to employ the blame strategy in addition to directive acts. As for the responses to complaints, the representatives of the British Airways showed a stronger tendency to accept complaints through offering repairs, admitting responsibility, and excusing oneself whereas the representatives of the Saudi Airlines preferred to employ partial-acceptance strategies. The results are interpreted in light of the existing literature and the Mixed Games Model.
This study examined the pragmatic competence and awareness of L2 learners of English, with a focus on their request strategies in L2 English, levels of (in)directness, request perspective, internal and external modifications, and the impact of tasks. The participants comprised 80 Cypriot Greek (CG) undergraduate students. The pragmatic tests were designed based on Speech Act Theory and included discourse completion tasks (DCTs) and multiple-choice questionnaires (MCQs). Additionally, a role-play and an interview task were employed to assess L2 learners’ pragmatic competence in oral discourse. The tasks featured four conditions related to power and social distance: [+social distance, status equals], [−social distance, status equals], [+social distance, hearer dominance], and [−social distance, hearer dominance]. Overall, the results indicated that L2 learners of English tended to prefer conventionally indirect requests, suggesting that L1 linguistic and cultural backgrounds influence expressions of politeness. Face-threatening situations with a high degree of imposition elicited more conventionally indirect requests. Data analysis revealed contextual variation but not a clear task effect. Factors such as social distance, hearer dominance, power, familiarity, and imposition impacted the degree of (in)directness, request perspective, and both internal and external modifications.
This chapter outlines the methodology adapted in the present study, aimed at comparing TBLT and the PPP framework in teaching L2 speech acts to Polish children aged 8–9. It covers participant demographics, target speech acts, and data collection methods. Ethical considerations, including participant well-being and data confidentiality, are discussed. The chapter concludes with an overview of the analysis procedures used to evaluate the effectiveness of TBLT and PPP in enhancing L2 pragmatic competence.
This paper aims to analyse the various apology strategies used by the characters in the Luca movie script and describe their use through a pragmatic approach by referring to the theory of Klimczak and Pawlak (2014) and Fraser's theory (1981) to explain the factors that influenced the use of apology strategies by characters in Luca's film script. This study uses a descriptive qualitative research method with data obtained from the film script Luca. The results of this study indicate that there are 23 utterances featuring apologies made by 6 characters in Luca's story. The findings are grouped into a taxonomy of apology strategies, there are 9 types of apology strategies used by the characters in Luca's story. The 9 types of strategy include Illocutionary Force Indicating Device (an expression of regret) of 5 utterances, Illocutionary Force Indicating Device (a request for the forgiveness) of 1 utterance, Phatic Communication of 2 utterances, Acknowledgement of Responsibility (explicit self-blame) of 2 utterances, Internal Intensifiers (intensifying adverbials) with 2 utterances, Acknowledgement of Responsibility with 4 utterances of lack of intent, Acknowledgement of Responsibility (expression of embarrassment) with 4 utterances, Explanation or account of the situation with 2 utterances, and Acknowledgement of Responsibility (refusal to acknowledge guilt) with 1 utterance, which every utterance and strategy were influenced by 1-2 factors.
p>Abstract: This study aims to find out expressive speech acts complaining about Trosborg's theory, (1995) which is in the film Taksi (1990). The method in this study uses descriptive qualitative. The source of the data in this study is the utterances of all the characters in the film Taksi (1990). The results in this study showed that the speech act of complaining was the highest, namely showing criticism by 42%, followed by the speech act of complaining which showed annoyance of 36%, then the last, the smallest, was the speech act of complaining which showed indifference by 22%.
Keywords: Speech act, expressive, complain, film.</p
Algunas arengas de la Ilíada, caracterizadas por la acumulación de insultos, amenazas y maldiciones, admiten un análisis como macro actos de habla de reprimenda. Estos macro actos de habla presentan una estructura y unas estrategias lingüísticas semejantes. La descortesía de estas reprimendas está normalizada y, por tanto, resulta aceptable tanto para el hablante como para el interlocutor. Se trata de una descortesía institucional que se sirve de la humillación del interlocutor como recurso para reafirmar en él los valores del ejército al que pertenece.
The Manual section of the Handbook of Pragmatics, produced under the auspices of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), is a collection of articles describing traditions, methods, and notational systems relevant to the field of linguistic pragmatics; the main body of the Handbook contains all topical articles. The first edition of the Manual was published in 1995. This second edition includes a large number of new traditions and methods articles from the 24 annual installments of the Handbook that have been published so far. It also includes revised versions of some of the entries in the first edition. In addition, a cumulative index provides cross-references to related topical entries in the annual installments of the Handbook and the Handbook of Pragmatics Online (at https://benjamins.com/online/hop/), which continues to be updated and expanded. This second edition of the Manual is intended to facilitate access to the most comprehensive resource available today for any scholar interested in pragmatics as defined by the International Pragmatics Association: “the science of language use, in its widest interdisciplinary sense as a functional (i.e. cognitive, social, and cultural) perspective on language and communication.”
This study entitled "The Use of Owabi Hyougen as Directive Speech Acts in the Edo Period in the Manga One Piece," aims to analyze the function of owabi hyougen as directive speech acts and the factors behind their use. This research employs a pragmatic approach with Searle's speech act theory and Brown and Levinson's politeness theory. The method applied is contextual analysis, with results presented informally. Based on the findings in the manga One Piece, it is revealed that directive speech acts are used to request help, information, and to ask others to do something. The use of owabi hyougen in this study is influenced by factors of distance, power, and rank of imposition, depending on the positions of the speaker, the listener, and the situation. The most dominant factor influencing the use of owabi hyougen in this study is distance, which indicates the social relationship or gap between the speaker and the listener.
Although several studies have examined the speech act of complaint on mainstream social media platforms, few have investigated complaints on university students’ online discussion forums. Therefore, this study examines the linguistic (in)directness in complaints made by Chinese university students on an online discussion forum based on Depraetere et al.’s (2021) taxonomy. It focuses on the formal realization of the four constitutive components (component A = complainable, component B = dissatisfaction, component C = complainee, and component D = wish for remedy) in Chinese and the component combinations realized in complaints on the online discussion forum. The data comprises a sample of 200 complaints compiled through random sampling from an online discussion forum of a Chinese university. The results revealed the realization devices of the four components on the online discussion forum in the Chinese context, highlighting both similarities and platform‐specific/language‐specific features. Additionally, the findings showed that all complaints in our dataset were linguistically direct. More specifically, the two‐component combination AB was preferred over other alternatives. The study further discusses the possible factors underlying the linguistic directness and the preference for the specific combination in complaints.
The current study aimed to investigate the realization and preference of request patterns in English language usage at Kohat University of Science and Technology (KUST) in Pakistan. The study adopted mixed model research utilizing the Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and a structured questionnaire, evaluating qualitative and quantitative data based on a coding manual from the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Project by Blum-Kulka et al. (1989). 150 both male and female English Language Users participated in the study. English language users (ELUs) at KUST employ eight different request strategies, with direct requests being the most common, followed by nonconventional and conventional indirect requests. ELUs tended to favor direct requests, especially when communicating with interlocutors of equal or higher status, despite cultural norms suggesting a preference for indirectness. Female learners demonstrated higher frequencies of pragmatic competence in their requests compared to male students, particularly when approaching higher-ranking counterparts. This study contributes to understanding English request strategies among Pakistani learners and the impact of power dynamics on request patterns. It sheds light on the challenges posed by pragmatic competence and appropriateness in making requests, particularly in interactions with higher-status interlocutors. The study acknowledges limitations such as the lack of triangulation and the focus on a single speaking act. Future research is recommended to employ triangulation, examine additional speech acts, increase the number of request scenarios, utilize alternative data collection methods, and explore pragmatic transfer between Pashto, Urdu, and English. Furthermore, investigating the teaching of speech acts in different pragmatic contexts is highlighted as a potential area for further research.
This study examined the request and apology speech acts performed by native Israeli Hebrew speakers and Arab (Egyptian, Saudi, and Iraqi) Hebrew learners as a second language. The data was collected based on a questionnaire which includes four social situations for realization of request and apology acts. 98 individuals participated in this study; divided into four groups, as follows: 30 Israelis whose native language is Hebrew, 30 Egyptians, 16 Saudis and 22 Iraqis. Data was analyzed according to the taxonomy of Blum-Kulka et al. (1989) (CCSARP) for requests and apologies in order to determine the similarities and differences between native and non-native speakers of Hebrew, and to measure to what extent of pragmatic competence among the Arab participants who learn Hebrew as a second language in realizing requesting and apology acts in different social contexts. The results, based on an analysis and comparison of their responses with those of native Hebrew speakers from Israel, showed that the Egyptian group performed Hebrew requests and apologies with a high level of pragmatic competence (equivalent to 91%), compared to the Israeli participants' responses. The Iraqi group came in second place with a relative average of 76%, and
the Saudi group came in last place with the lowest percentage of pragmatic competence (equivalent to 61%).
The web 2.0. has profoundly transformed the way people participate in every aspect of our social, cultural, political and everyday life. One of the most studied aspects of this new participatory style of life is the citizen journalism (also known as public, democratic, participatory or street journalism). Citizen journalism is defined as ‘the gathering and reporting of news by ordinary people rather than professional reporters’, or ‘the act of private citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting and discussing news and information’. In almost a decade something similar is going to happen in the communication of tourism. The web 2.0 has profoundly changed the tourist industry, and in a special way it has affected the habits of consumers (also called pro-sumers, as they at the same time produce and consume texts, services, and communication). Customer reviews of tourist sites and attractions are going to become a significant part of the communicative micro-system established between customers, tour operators and the owners of hotel, restaurants etcetera. In a previous research (Compagnone and Fiorentino, 2018) we have analyzed a corpus of Italian online reviews posted by customers on the most famous website for tourist reviewing, TripAdvisor. Focusing on Italian online reviews of some Italian hotels we were able to get some relevant results on the linguistic, textual and pragmatic aspects of this area of the language of tourism. In this paper we enlarge our corpus including English and French online reviews in order to approach the topic from a contrastive point of view. Our objective is now to analyze the French and the English reviews of the same hotels we have already considered in order to compare reviews of the same object so that also potential intercultural aspects of citizen tourism can be observed.
This study investigates the influence of some social variables on the choice of thanking strategies in British and American plays. It particularly investigates the influence of social power, gender, and ethnicity on British and American's choice of the appropriate strategy of thanking. The .main objectives of .this. Study .are. described as.follows: (1) investigating .the.influence.of.social power on.the.choice of thanking strategies; (2) finding out how ethnic groups have an impact on the choice of thanking and finding why these choices are made; (3) showing whether there are significant differences in the way male and female characters utilize thanking and its strategies; (4) finding the type of strategies adopted when performing the speech act of thanking; (5) identifying the most frequent politeness maxims in both of the plays; (6) Examining whether American English or British English is more influenced by the social variables. For data collection, the study involves two British and American plays. As for data analysis, the study adopts Searle's (1969) model. Furthermore, the speech act of thanking will be conducted according to the politeness maxims which are suggested by Leech (1983). The results of data analysis have shown that (1) the variable of social power influences the level of directness; (2) the variable of ethnicity also influences the choice of the speech act of thanking strategies; (3) males tend to utilize the speech act of thanking more frequently than females; (4) explicit thanking strategies are more frequent than implicit thanking; and (5) As far as the targeted plays are concerned, the British characters are more polite than the Americans.
This study aimed to determine the speech act strategies of requesting and apologizing sentences in Arabic produced by Non-Native Speakers (NNS). This study used a qualitative approach with a case study design. Participants in this study were 50 students of the Arabic Language Education Study Program at Jambi University. The results of this study suggest that the most dominant request strategy is conventionally indirect (60%), especially the query preparatory sub-strategy, which is used to maintain politeness by asking questions without the impression of forcing. In addition, the direct strategy with the sub-strategy of the derivable mood (imperative) is also used, although with a lower frequency, with polite expressions such as "min faḍlika" to maintain politeness. Non-conventionally indirect strategies (5%) were also found, where speakers gave indirect hints to convey requests subtly. The apology strategy was the most frequently used (68%), followed by acknowledgment of responsibility (20%) and promise of non-recurrence (10%). The explanation or account strategy was used at a shallow frequency (2%).
Linguists and language philosophers have long since recognized that language is used not only to describe states of affairs and events but also to do certain things (for instance, complaining, praising, etc.). The acts that a speaker performs when uttering a sentence are called speech acts. The term speech act goes back to the language philosophers John L. Austin and John R. Searle. The encyclopedic entry discusses what speech acts are, how they were defined by Austin and Searle, and how they are connected to syntactic theory. We then briefly describe some of the criticisms which have been leveled at speech act theory from other discourse perspectives. In the next step, we point to more recent theoretical work trying to overcome these criticisms. We also briefly describe efforts to incorporate speech act theory into syntactic frameworks. Finally, we provide a brief overview of the fields in which speech act theory has been used.
This discourse-pragmatic study examines why a past or on-going action become the focus of customer complaints in e-commerce service encounters. Analyzing interactions between customers and service agents on Taobao, the study reveals how customer complaints are triggered by perceived moral transgressions attributed to service agents. The findings identify two types of transgressions: distributive and interactional. The study highlights metapragmatic expressions that reveal customers’ beliefs about appropriate standards in the complaint resolution process. Customers perceive service agents as violating distributive justice by infringing on their benefactive, epistemic, and deontic rights, and as breaching interactional justice through lapses in responsibility and honesty. Overall, the study illustrates how customers’ metapragmatic perceptions of moral transgressions shape complaint interactions in e-commerce settings, providing crucial insights for both theoretical analysis and practical applications.
This paper examines anger expression in a corpus of 66 customer service complaints posted to the Mexican X/Twitter account of the online cab company, Uber. Specifically, building on work on emotions and (im)politeness as well as work on service-related anger episodes, it focuses on how these complainers signal their anger, and how these emotional expressions are related to rapport management orientation. Adopting a qualitative perspective, we observed complainers in this corpus expressing anger explicitly (using specific lexical choices such as profanities), implicitly (for example, asking rhetorical questions with semantic connotations of anger), or indulging in anger behaviours (threatening retaliatory behaviour). The majority of these strategies would be considered rapport challenging, however, certain more constructive, rapport enhancing strategies were also observed: for example, complainers portrayed themselves as approachable using medium specific in-group slang or provided means to open a dialogue to solve whatever problem they were complaining about.
In the last two decades, many studies have been conducted to investigate speech act performance in general, and apology speech act in particular. The study of speech acts can provide us with better understanding and new insights into the interdependence of linguistic forms and socio cultural context. The objective of this paper is to investigate how the performance of learners of English differs in their performance in realize an apology speech act. Therefore, the study aimed at answering the following questions: What are the apology expressions used in the given situations by Iraqi EFL students in the Department of English ? How do students in Thi-Qar university respond apologetically in the given situations? What apology strategies do they use? The following hypotheses are posed in this study : 1.The students lack the recognition and production ability of using apology strategies but the students’ performance in the recognition part is still better than their performance in the production part of the test. The students tend to use certain formulaic expressive such as sorry, pardon rather than use grammatical structure. Females tend to use particular types of linguistic forms rather than males in expressing apology. They use long sentences and expression to express apology. Males and females use more than one strategy in the same situation. This study aims at finding the common apology expressions used by students in different situations. The fundamental goals behind the present study are to evaluate the third year subjects’ at the college of Education University of Thi-Qar mastery of speech act of apology and to know whether they are able to produce the proper form of apology. In addition to examine how far the subjects are capable of recognizing and producing apology. The Participants of the study consists of 30 students in the Department of English language at Thi-Qar University. They are between 19 and 25. To achieve the aims of research, the following procedures are adopted: presenting a theoretical survey of apology and its strategies ,its forms in English and shed light on its syntactic structure of apology. The practical part involves a test. The apology instrument used consisted of ten situations which the subjects responded to apologetically. The situations were prepared, typed and given to the subjects in a session, then collectedand the second part consisted of ten questions used to measure the syntactic ability of the students. The second part is concerned on evaluating the production aspect of the students. The researcher got benefit from the situations used by Selo (2004). In the present study the model adopted is that of Cohen and Olshtain (1981: 113–134) and Olshtain and Cohen (1983: 22–23).
The paper documents several key contributions made by linguists to the strategic aspect of communication, discourse studies, theory of emotions, and speech impact. The paper identifies and analyses the communicative tactics manifesting the strategy of emotional impact in modern English fictional detective discourse. These advanced tactics have been investigated from the perspective of the lexical, morphological and syntactic characteristics that exemplify them in detective discourse.
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