Sequential Organization of Request: A Discourse Analysis Based on Spoken and Written Chinese Texts

• Main Authors: Ting, Leeping, 丁麗萍
• Other Authors: ---
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 1997
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/71352756795302590930

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 語言學研究所 === 85 === Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the sequential organization of the requests in Mandarin discourse from a functional perspective. According to Levinson (1983) and Schegloff (1990), the structure of requests in English conversation may be organized in the order of position 1 (Pre- requests, P1) followed by position 2 (go-ahead response, P2), position 3 (the request, P3) and position 4 (compliance, P4). Four research questions are of particular interest and are addressed in the present study: (1) Do Mandarin requests in spoken and written language also show the sequential organization? (2) Is the sequential organization functionally motivated? (3) How does the theory of politeness as advanced in Brown & Levinson (1987) account for the sequential organization of the requests? (4) How do we interpret indirect requests based on the sequential organization? Our findings indicate that both spoken and written requests are sequentially organized in the order of 1234, 134, 124, 13, and 34. etc., despite of the distinct language medium (spoken vs. written). Also, investigation into recurrent linguistic features , following Biber's similar study (1988), of the four positions reveals that the sequential organization is functionally motivated by interactionality instead of language medium or plannedness. In terms of politeness, it is found that politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson apply to the sequential organization of requests as a whole, indicating that the theory of politeness extends its effect on face-threatening requests from the fragmented positions (turns/lines) to the organizational level. Finally, the sequential organization as an internalized schema contributes to the interpretation of indirect requests. To decode indirect requests, participants have to rely on the Cooperative Principle (Grice, 1975) and typical linguistic features associated with requests so that they may activate the requestive schema and interact with each other based on the schematic sequencing from either P1 or P3 to the final compliance, P4.