A Comparative Study of Certainty and Conventional Indirectness: Evidence from British English and Peninsular Spanish

Abstract

This article presents the results of an exploratory empirical study into the perception of conventionally indirect requests in British English and Peninsular Spanish, given the high incidence of the pragmatic category over others in its encoding of politeness in both related and unrelated languages (cf. Blum-Kulka et al., 1989). More specifically, the article focuses on the similarities and differences between Britons and Spaniards with regard to the speaker's assumed expectations of compliance in choosing from the conventionally indirect spectrum. In other words, the focus is on how (un)certain the speaker was that the addressee would comply with the request when s/he chose a particular conventionally indirect request. The data for this study were collected via an open role play, post-performance interviews and questionnaires. The results obtained show that, in comparable situations, the Spaniards were generally more certain that the addressee would comply with the request than the Britons. It is argued that conventional indirectness appears to reflect different social meanings in English and Spanish and that such differences should be taken into account when analysing the realization patterns of pragmatic categories in language.

The effect of using mitigation devices on request compliance in Persian and American English

“…In another study, Márquez Reiter et al (2005) investigated whether requestors' lower perceptions of request compliance by their requestees induces them to internally mitigate their requests. They observed that speakers appeared to be more certain of request compliance when no softening devices were used.…”

“…However, it should be pointed out that throughout the article we will use the terms 'mitigation' and 'modification' interchangeably. With the exception of few studies that have dealt with the use of mitigations with regard to requestors' perception of compliance (Márquez Reiter et al, 2005), the majority of studies in this line of research are concerned with the type and number of mitigation devices employed. This study contributes to current understanding of the types of mitigation devices and their roles in Persian and American English cultures.…”

A comparative study of requests in heritage speaker Spanish, L1 Spanish, and L1 English

“…Márquez Reiter, Rainey and Fulcher (2005) also compared Peninsular Spanish and British English in a study focusing on the participants' assumed expectation of compliance (i.e., how certain or uncertain S was that H would comply with the request) when choosing conventionally indirect request strategies. Their findings suggest that, in both languages, S is more likely to choose a formulaic conventionally indirect request when there is a higher degree of certainty that H will comply.…”

Pragmatic Empathy as a Grand Strategy in Business Letter Writing

“…Thirdly, Mood system, referred to as conventionalized indirectness (Brown & Levinson, 1987: 131), can also be employed to achieve empathy (Ma & He, 2011). To be specific, speech acts are often conventionally phrased with modals such as "can/could", "would like/want/I'd rather", and "would you be willing" (Searle, 1975) so as to be polite as well as easy to interpret (Reiter, Rainey, & Fulcher, 2005). This article integrates these pragmatic empathy models and examines their adaptability to business letters.…”