Abstract
This paper presents the results from a study analyzing the distribution of speech acts across three communication channels: email, face-to-face and telephone. The study involved an actual group involved working together on a project. The patterns of speech acts across the three channels are presented. In particular, the use of the indirect form of each speech act is highlighted. It is shown that the indirect form plays a major role across speech acts and channels, with a few noteworthy exceptions.
Highlights
From the results of this study, it would seem that most writers on the subject have ignored an important element in communication: the indirect form of communication
It may be that indirect speech acts were not important for one reason or another in their studies
Searle does state that any indirect speech act must in principle be translatable into one of similar meaning in the direct form
Summary
It would be useful to examine the use of the indirect form in collaborative (project-oriented) work to see what patterns occur in various media In this way some light could be shed on the degree to which the support of indirect speech acts would be important in collaborative systems. "In indirect speech acts the speaker communicates to the hearer more than he says by way of relying on their mutually shared background information, both linguistic and nonlinguistic, together with the general powers of rationality and inference on the part of the hearer. The notion of indirect speech acts is not without controversy It does point out, that in the normal course of human communication, the complete intent of any piece of discouse cannot be determined by lexical or semantic analysis, but must be determined by context
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