Language structure in social interaction: perceptions of direct and indirect speech acts and interactants who use them.

Abstract

Speech acts (Searle, 1975) can be performed either directly or in various indirect ways. It is argued that the appropriateness of this choice is affected by the process of face management and the relative status of the speaker, and the choice of how to perform speech acts will encode social information. A written scenario format was used, and in Experiment 1, subjects rated direct and indirect questions and replies as a function of the status of the target interactants, and the extent to which the requested information was face threatening. Perceptions of the appropriateness of replies, but not the questions, varied as a function of face threat. The effects of status were in the predicted direction for both questions and replies, but significant only for the perceived politeness of questions. Subjects in Experiment 2 rated the scenario interactants and their relationships as a function of the use of direct and indirect replies and rated possible rejoinders to these replies. Inferences of status, liking, and closeness varied as a function of the reply type used, and indirect replies were more likely to be accepted than to be questioned when there was an obvious reason for their use (i.e., to manage face).