are often marked and sound less natural than utterances with an

indirect meaning. For example, the utterance “She is a snake.”

having an implicit meaning sounds more natural than “She is

spiteful.” Exclamatory utterances “It’s not exactly a picniс

weather!” and “It’s not a day for cricket!” sound more

expressive and habitual than the literal utterance “What nasty

weather we are having!” The interrogative construction

expressing a request “Could you put on your black dress?” is more

customary than the performative: “I suggest that you should put

on your black dress.”

To summarize: there is no unanimity among linguists

studying indirect speech acts as to how we discover them in each

other’s speech and “extract” their meaning. Every theory has got

its strong and weak points, and the final word has not yet been

said.

3. ILLOCUTIONS OF INDIVIDUAL UTTERANCES WITHIN

A DISCOURSE

Speech act theories considered above treat an indirect

speech act as the product of a single utterance based on a single

sentence with only one illocutionary point - thus becoming a

pragmatic extension to sentence grammars. In real life, however,

we do not use isolated utterances: an utterance functions as part

of a larger intention or plan. In most interactions, the

interlocutors each have an agenda; and to carry out the plan, the

illocutions within a discourse are ordered with respect to one

another. Very little work has been done on the contribution of

the illocutions within utterances to the development of

understanding of a discourse.

As Labov and Fanshel pointed out, “most utterances can be

seen as performing several speech acts simultaneously ...

Conversation is not a chain of utterances, but rather a matrix of

utterances and actions bound together by a web of understandings

and reactions ... In conversation, participants use language to

interpret to each other the significance of the actual and

potential events that surround them and to draw the consequences

for their past and future actions.” (Labov, Fanshel 1977: 129).

Attempts to break out of the sentence-grammar mould were

made by Labov and Fanshel [35], Edmondson [29], Blum-Kulka,

House, and Kasper [24]. Even an ordinary and rather formal

dialogue between a customer and a chemist contains indirectness

(see table 4.1).

Table 4.1

Indirect speech acts of an ordinary formal dialogue

|Participant |Utterance |Indirect speech acts |

|Customer |Do you have any | Seeks to establish preparatory |

| |Actifed? |condition for |

| | |transaction and thereby implies the |

| | |intention to |

| | |buy on condition that Actifed is |

| | |available. |

|Chemist |Tablets or | Establishes a preparatory |

| |linctus? |condition for the |

| | |transaction by offering a choice of |

| | |product. |

|Customer |Packet of | Requests one of products offered,|

| |tablets, |initiates |

| |please. |transaction. In this context, even |

| | |without |

| | |“please”, the noun phrase alone will |

| | |function as |

| | |a requestive. |

|Chemist |That'll be | A statement disguising a request |

| |$18.50. |for payment to |

| | |execute the transaction. |

|Customer |OK. | Agrees to contract of sale thereby|

| | |fulfilling |

| | |t buyer's side of the bargain. |

|Chemist |Have a nice day! | Fulfills seller's side of the |

| | |bargain and |

| | |concludes interaction with a |

| | |conventional farewell. |

Discourse always displays one or more perlocutionary

functions. Social interaction predominates in everyday chitchat;

informativeness in academic texts; persuasiveness in political

speeches; and entertainment in novels. But many texts combine

some or all these functions in varying degrees to achieve their

communicational purpose. For instance, although an academic text

is primarily informative, it also tries to persuade readers to

reach a certain point of view; it needs to be entertaining enough

to keep the reader's attention; and most academic texts try to

get the reader on the author’s side through social interactive

techniques such as use of authorial we to include the reader.

The genre of the text shapes the strategy for its

interpretation: we do not expect nonliterality when reading

medical prescriptions. For every genre there is an illocutionary

standard. For example, a letter of recommendation is an alloy of

declarations and expressives. A request added to it converts it

into a petition whereas a detailed list of facts from the

person’s life turns it into a biography. In canonized texts, lack

of “moulds” has a significant pragmatic load.

The illocutionary standard of a text depends on the

communicative situation and macrocontext. For example, in “The

Centaur” by John Updike there is an obituary whose indirect

meaning is much wider than the literal meaning (chapter 5 of the

novel).

On the whole, the contribution of the illocutions of

individual utterances to the understanding of macrostructures

within texts is sorely in need of study.

4. 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.”

5. EXAMPLES OF INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS IN MODERN ENGLISH DISCOURSE

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.

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