Топик: Косвенные речевые акты в современном английском языке

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 таin 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!”

6.2. Publicism

Indirect speech acts are widely used in publicistic works when the speaker or the writer aims at convincing the interlocutor of something. A quotation from an article published by “The Times” dated June 12, 1999, exemplifies this:

“ The claim that the Earl of Oxford, or Bacon, or any other grandee must have written “Shakespeare” seems to be born largely of a snobbish conviction that a provincial grammar-school boy could not have produced that corpus of world masterpieces. Y et outstanding literary achievement is more likely to come from such a background than any other.

Wi th the exception of Byron and Shelley, all our greatest writers have been middle-class, and most of them provincials . If Marlowe, a Canterbury shoemaker’s son, could re-create the worlds of Edward II and Tamburlaine, why should not a Stratford glover’s son depict courtly life at large? The argument that it would take an aristocrat to know how royalty behaved and thought ignores the imaginative power of well-read genius. ”

The journalist’s argument“The claim … seems to be born largely of a snobbish conviction that a provincial grammar school boy could not have produced that corpus of world masterpieces . ” contains two speech acts. On the one hand, it is a representative giving a negative, critical appraisal. On the other hand, it is an indirect expressive (a protest).

The argument “If Marlowe, a Canterbury shoemaker’s son, could re-create the worlds of Edward II and Tamburlaine, why should not a Stratford glover’s son depict courtly life at large? ” is another indirect speech act. Formally, it is a question, but in essence it is an indirect statement (a representative).

Another article in “The Times” of November 13, 1999 is devoted to the safety of flights of private airplanes:

“… Their central, and only, point is not an argument but a prejudice - that safety and private sector are incompatible. This is obviously wrong, as the impressive history of this country's airlines and airports makes plain ” .

The utterance “It's not an argument, but a predjudice - that safety and private sector are incompatible ” is a representative, but on the other hand, the author protests against the point of view taken by his opponents, and this utterance can also be regarded as an indirect expressive.

Evidently, indirect speech acts influence the quality of argumentation, and that is crucial for publicism. They amplify the speaker’s impact upon the hearers’ feelings and emotions.

6.3. Advertising

Indirect speech acts are widely used in advertising. Advertisements can perform various literal functions combining representatives (information on the product), commissives (safety or quality guarantee), expressives (admiration for the product), etc. But the pragmatic focus of any advertisement is always a directive: “Buy it now!”

For example, the advertisement: “You’ll see Tefal in action! Purchasing the new model, you get a present!” is a directive disguised as a commissive (a promise). Often the implication is biased from the product to its potential user, like in the slogan: “L’Oreal, Paris. Because I’m worth it” (a directive camouflaged as a representative).

6.4. Anecdotes

Indirect speech acts are often the heart of an anecdote [17]: Two businessmen made a fortune by means of forgery and were doing their best to be considered aristocrats. They even had their portraits painted by the most famous and “expensive” artist. The portraits were first displayed at a grand rout. The businessmen brought the most influential critic to the portraits hoping to hear the words of admiration and compliments. The critic stared at the portraits for a while, then shook his head as if something important were missing and asked pointing at the space between the portraits: “ And where is the Savior? ”

The implication of the question is unambiguous: Jesus Christ between the two robbers. The critic made up a complicated indirect speech act: he disguised an evaluative representative: “You are two scoundrels, of that I am sure ” as a question “And where is the Savior?”

Anecdotes often play with a wrong understanding of the speaker’s illocutionary point by the hearer, for example:

Someone knocks at the window of a peasant’s house at 3 a.m.:

- Hey, you need any firewood?

- No, go away, I am sleeping.

In the morning, the peasant saw that all the firewood disappeared from his shed.

In this funny story the peasant took the question for an offer, and his interlocutor (hardly by mistake) took the refusal as the answer.

7. INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS AS A YARDSTICK OF COMMUNICATIVE MATURITY AND MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING