INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS IN ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN

5.    INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS IN ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN

Pragmatic research reveals that the main types of speech acts can be found in all natural languages. Yet, some speech acts are specific for a group of languages or even for a certain language. For instance, the English question “Have you got a match?” is a request while the Ukrainian utterance “Чи маєте Ви сірники?” possesses two meanings: either the speaker is asking you for matches or offering them to you. Only the utterance “У Вас немає сірників?” having interrogatory intonation and stressed “немає” is unambiguously a request.

Offering advice, the Ukrainians prefer not to use modal verbs (могти, хотіти) that would make up an indirect speech act. Preference is given to direct speech acts of advice.  

Seeing off guests, the Ukrainians often use causative verbs, e.g. “Заходіть! Телефонуйте! Пишіть!” This communicative behaviour often provokes an inadequate reaction of foreigners: instead of “Дякую!” prescribed by the Ukrainian speech etiquette they say: “With great pleasure!” or ask “When exactly should I come? What for?”

Mikhail Goldenkov describes a typical indirect speech act used in US public transport [3,82]. If a passenger wants to get off a crowded bus, s/he should not directly question the passengers blocking the way if they are getting off or not (like it is usually done in Ukraine). A direct speech act would be taken as meddling in other people’s personal matters. A request to make way must be disguised as a statement: “Excuse me, I am getting off” or as a question in the first person: “Could I get off please?”

Indirect speech acts must always be taken into account when learning a foreign language. In many cases they make the communicative center and sound much more natural than direct speech acts. In particular, at English lessons in Ukraine much attention is given to direct inverted questions. Furthermore, often only such questions are considered to be correct, and as a result students get accustomed to conversations reminding a police quest: “Have you got an apartment?”, “Where does your father work?”, etc. However, when asking for information, native speakers do not often use direct speech acts because they are not suitable from the point of view of speech etiquette. To master the art of conversation, students must be able to use indirect declarative questions, e.g. “I’d like to know if you are interested in football” or “I wonder if we could be pen-pals”, etc.

Native English speakers often say that English-speaking Ukrainians sound too direct. As a result, the hearer feels pressure that can cause a communication failure.  I remember my husband selecting books to borrow in a public library of Montreal, Canada. He put aside the books he chose and left them unattended for a minute to go to another bookshelf. Meanwhile another reader came by and took some of my husband’s books. Seeing that, my husband came up to the man and said: “Please put the books back”. The man looked offended. Definitely, he did not expect a direct speech act. He took it as a command threatening his “negative face”. My husband made a communicational mistake. An indirect speech act was the only thing appropriate in the situation. He should have said something like “Excuse me, but I am borrowing those books.” It would have been a request disguised as a statement.

English lessons for the Ukrainians must include Tips for making English less direct, i.e. special information on how to “soften” directness of speech using indirect speech acts, for example: “Try to present your view as a question, not as a statement. Say: “Wouldn’t that be too late?” instead of “That will be too late.”  

6.  EXAMPLES OF INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS IN MODERN ENGLISH DISCOURSE

6.1.     Fiction

Literature is often compared to a mirror reflecting life. Writers strive to make their personages sound natural, and utterances of literary personages can be linguistically analyzed just like speech of real people. Here are some examples of indirect speech acts generated by heroes of works written by modern British and US authors.

a) In the short story “The Life Guard” by John Wain young Jimmy Townsend works as a beach lifeguard. One morning he wants to get rid of an unwelcome visitor in his hut at the beach and asks him to quit using an indirect speech act (a representative with the illocutionary force of a directive): “I’m going swimming now. I have to keep in practice.” The visitor, however, does not understand the implication and answers: “I am not stopping you.” Jimmy tries another indirect speech act: “I have to leave the hut empty.” The implication dawns on the visitor, but he is not sure: “You mean nobody is allowed in the hut?” Jimmy uses an indirect speech act to invite the visitor to join him for a swim (a request disguised as a question): “Why don’t you come in swimming with me if you want something to do?”

 To prove his efficiency as an instructor, Jimmy wants to teach swimming to an old fat lady. The woman wants Jimmy to leave her alone, but being polite, avoids a command and uses representatives with the illocutionary force of a directive: “The water is cold?”; “It’s the first time I am on the beach this year”; “I’ll never swim the Channel, that I do know.”

Scared that he will be fired because no one needs a lifeguard at a safe beach, Jimmy plans to arrange a fake rescue. He asks his former schoolmate to pretend drowning: “I want you to go in swimming, pretend to get into trouble, wave to me, and I’ll swim out and tow you back to shore.” The boy declines Jimmy’s idea using an indirect speech act (a question with the illocutionary force of a statement): “What d’you think I am, daft?”

b) In Thorton Wilder’s novel titled "Heaven’s my destination" a young man named Mr.Brush asks Mr. Bohardus, a forensic photographer, to sell a photograph:

“- There, now, I guess, we got some good pictures.

- Do you sell copies of these, Mr.Bohardus?

- We're not allowed to, I reckon. Leastways there never was no great demand.

- I was thinking I could buy some extra. I haven't been taken for more than two years. I know my mother would like some.

Bohardus stared at him narrowly.

- I don't think it shows a good spirit to make fun of this work, Mr.Brown, and I tell you I don't like it. In fifteen years here nobody's made fun of it, not even murderers haven't.

- Believe me, Mr.Bohardus, said Brush, turning red, "I wasn't making fun of anything. I knew you made good photos, and that's all I thought about."

Bohardus maintained an angry silence, and when Brush was led away refused to return his greeting”.

The question “Do you sell copies of these, Mr.Bohardus?” has another meaning, that of a compliment. Compliments have a restricted sphere of usage, and the photographer’s negative reply showed that under the circumstances it was not appropriate to compliment a policeman. The compliment was rejected in a friendly manner. But Brush broke the standard scheme of an indirect speech act and turned a compliment into a literal request. The policeman was insulted: he thought that Brush mocked at him. Brush tried to make amends, but to no avail. Brush violated the communicative convention, and his words were interpreted as an affront.

 c) Earl Fox, the protagonist of the novel “Live with lightning” composed by Mitchell Wilson, is a famous physicist aged 50. His social status is high, but he falls out of love with his science and feels inner emptiness and despair. The author uses a rhetoric question to describe the first fit of Fox’s indifference to physics:

“Realization had come slowly, against his reluctance. He was listening to a paper being read, and he found himself asking “Who cares?” It was the first open admission that curiosity was dead.”

Rhetoric questions are pseudoquestions because the speaker knows the answer and does not ask for information. On the contrary, a rhetoric question conveys some information to the hearer and seeks to convince the hearer of something [15,97]. What Fox meant by the question “Who cares?” was the statement statement “Nobody cares.”

d) Further on in Mitchell Wilson’s novel, Fox interviews Eric Gorin, a young scientist who applied for a job in his lab. Closing their conversation, Fox wants to show his friendliness by asking a formal personal question: "And did you have a pleasant summer, Mr. Gorin?” Its nonliteral meaning is that of a directive:
“Relax. Don’t be so tense.” Fox expects a conventional reply “Yes, thank you”, but Gorin’s utterance breaks the rules of speech etiquette: “A pleasant summer?” Erik was silent for the time of two long breaths. “No, sir,” he said explosively. “I damn well did not have a pleasant summer!” Fox is startled into silence: Gorin not only took the question literally, but did not follow the politeness principle as well.

 e) “I'm not quite sure how long you've known the Fieldings” (J. Fowles); "I'm dying to know what you did with all the lions you slaughtered," said Susie Boyd (S. Maugham); “I'd like to know why she's gone off like this.” (J. Fowles).

Indirect questions in the utterances above are compound sentences whose principle clauses contain predicates of cognition while subordinate clauses specify the desired information.

 f) Indirect speech acts are frequent when a person of a lower social status addresses a person of a higher social status. Often they contain additional markers of politeness like apologies, appellations to the hearer’s volition, etc. For instance, a maid says to her mistress: “I'm sorry to have disturbed you, Madam... I only wondered whether you wished to see me.” (D. du Maurier). A visitor says to his hostess: “I only want to know the truth, if you.will tell it to me” (E. Voynich).

g) “A question in a question” is also an indirect speech act. The speaker asks if the hearer is knowledgeable about something, and the informative question is included into the whole construction as a complement. Such utterances give the hearer a chance “to quit the game” by answering only the direct question, e.g.  "Do you happen to know when it is open?" - "Oh, no, no. I haven't been there myself" (L. Jones).

h) A reliable way to be polite is to express a communicative intention as a request to perform it. Such a request can be formulated as a separate utterance, a part of an utterance or a composite sentence, for instance: “May I ask you where you are staying?” (C. Snow); “Might I inquire if you are the owner?” (L. Jones); “What are your 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!”