Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-24T03:27:25.284Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is Sybil there? the structure of some American English directives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Susan Ervin-Tripp
Susan Ervin-Tripp
Affiliation:
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Directives to hearers can be expressed in a variety of syntactic forms. The social distribution of such forms shows them to occur systematically, according to familiarity, rank, territorial location, difficulty of task, whether or not a duty is normally expected, whether or not non-compliance is likely. Except for some hints and questions not mentioning what is desired, directives do not require inference from a prior literal interpretation to be understood. Indeed, misunderstandings and puns imply that the interpretation of many directives is not likely to include a literal phase. On the contrary, where knowledge of obligations and prohibitions is shared, simple interpretation rules suffice, allowing prompt understanding. To interpret the affective significance of directives, one must compare the expected and realized forms, and recognize the social features that the difference implies. Deference, solidarity, coldness, sarcasm, rudeness, and qualitatively specified compliments or insults can be communicated systematically by such departures. (Pragmatics, directives, requests, politeness, conversational analysis, performatives, US English.)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , April 1976 , pp. 25 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Agar, M. (1973). Ripping and running. New York: Seminar Press.Google Scholar
Basso, K. H. & Selby, H. (eds.) (1976). Meaning in anthropology. University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Blom, J. P. & Gumperz, J. J. (1972). Some social determinants of verbal behavior, In Gumperz, J. J. and Hymes, D. (ed.), Directions in sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1974). Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena. Manuscript.Google Scholar
Brown, R. W. & Gilman, A. (1960). The pronouns of power and solidarity. In Sebeok, T. (ed.), Style in language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. 253–76.Google Scholar
Clark, H. & Lucy, P. (1975). Understanding what is meant from what is said: a study in conversationally-conveyed requests. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 14. 56–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dikeman, B. & Parker, P. R. (1964). Request forms. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Dore, John. (1976). Children's illocutionary acts. In Freedle, R. (ed.), Discourse relations: Comprehension and production. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, S. (1964). An analysis of the interaction of language, topic, and listener. In Gumperz, J. J. and Hymes, D. (eds.), The ethnography of communication, American Anthropologist 66: 6, Part 2, 86–102.Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, S. (1968). Sociolinguistics. In Berkowitz, L. (ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology. New York: Academic Press. 4. 91–165.Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, S. (in press). Wait for me, roller-skate. In Mitchell-Kernan, C. & Ervin-Tripp, S. (eds.), Child discourse. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Friedrich, P. (1972). Social context and semantic feature: The Russian pronominal usage. In Gumperz, J. J. & Hymes, D. (eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 270–300.Google Scholar
Gardner, C. (1968). A scale of politeness of request forms in English. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Garvey, C. (1975). Requests and responses in children's speech. Journal of Child Language 2. 41–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geertz, C. (1960). The religion of Java. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press.Google Scholar
Geohegan, W. (1973). Natural information processing rules: Formal theory and application to ethnography. Berkeley, Calif.: Language Behavior Research Laboratory. Monograph 3.Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1963). Behavior in public places. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction Ritual. New York: Doubleday Anchor.Google Scholar
Gordon, D. & Lakoff, G. (1971). Conversational postulates. Papers from the 7th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. 63–84.Google Scholar
Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In Cole, P. & Morgan, J. (eds.), Syntax and Semantics. New York: Academic Press. 3. 41–58.Google Scholar
Gruber, J. P. (1975). Performative-constative transition in child language development. Foundations of Language 12. 513–28.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. J. (1971). Language in social groups. Anwar, Dil (ed.). Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. J. (in press). Language, communication and public negotiation. In Sanday, P. R. (ed.), Anthropology and the public interest: Fieldwork and theory. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hane, G. (1974). Request forms at Berkeley Pump Co. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Humphress, G. (1974). The style vernacular of enlisted Marines. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations in sociolinguistics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Isola, S. (1974). Functions of requests within family interaction. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
James, S. L. The effect of listener and situation on the politeness of preschool children's directive speech. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Kakimoto, D. (1967). Descriptions and requests: A study of status differentiation in the speech of undereducated adults. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, R. (1972). Language in context. Language 48. 907–927.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, R. (1973). The logic of politeness: or minding your P's and Q's. Papers from the 9th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Lamb, S. (1964). The sememic approach to structural semantics. American Anthropologist 66. Pt. 2, 57–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, S. E. (1964). Speech levels in Japan and Korea. In Hymes, D. (ed.), Language in culture and society. New York: Harper & Row. 407–15.Google Scholar
Matheson, S. (1967). Request forms at a university dining hall. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Mitchell-Kernan, C. (in press). Directives in children's role-playing. In Mitchell-Kernan, C. & Ervin-Tripp, S. (eds.), Child discourse. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Mohan, B. (n.d.). Principles, postulates, politeness. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Neustupny, J. V. (1972). Remarks on Japanese honorifics. In Neustupny, J. V. (ed.), Papers in Japanese Linguistics I. Linguistic Communications of Monash University, No. 7. Melbourne, Australia. 78–117.Google Scholar
Reeder, K. (1975). On young children's discrimination of illocutionary force. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Rogers, E. (1967). Work-versus person-oriented activity. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Rogers, E. (1967). Formality of request and forms of address. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Sachs, J. S. (1967). Recognition memory for syntactic and semantic aspects of connected discourse. Perception and Psychophysics 2. 437–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sacks, H. (1973). Tout le monde doit mentir. Communications 20. 182–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking in conversation. Language 50. 696–735.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sadock, J. M. (1972). Speech act idioms. Papers from the 8th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech Acts. London and New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searle, J. R. (1975). Indirect speech acts. In Cole, P. & Morgan, J. (eds.), Syntax and Semantics. Academic Press. 3. 59–82.Google Scholar
Selkirk, E. (1967). A simplified request form and its social variants. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Shatz, M. (1974). The comprehension of indirect directives: Can two-year-olds shut the door? Linguistic Society of America, summer meeting.Google Scholar
Simon, R. (1967). An observational study of requests. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Sinclair, J. McH. & Coulthard, R. M. (1974). Towards an analysis of discourse. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Soskin, W. F. & John, V. (1963). The study of spontaneous talk. In Barker, R. G. (ed.), The stream of behavior. New York: Appleton.Google Scholar
Stewart, J. T. (1967). Requests and status. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Stross, B. (1964). Waiter-to-cook speech in restaurants. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Teaford, S. (1974). The markers of compatibility: A comparative analysis of request forms. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Tyler, S. (1972). Context and alternation in Koya kinship. In Gumperz, J. J. & Hymes, D. (eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 251–69.Google Scholar
Valentine, D. C. (1967). Observation project. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar
Wisner, J. R. Jr (1968). Request forms in a hospital setting. Unpublished term paper.Google Scholar