Index. List of tables -- List of figures -- Introduction -- Future perspectives -- Outline -- Theoretical framework -- Requests in pragmatics theories -- Requests in speech act theory -- Requests in politeness theories -- Requests in conversation analysis -- Speech acts and instruments of data collection -- Data collection instruments in pragmatics research -- Instrument-induced effects on the production of speech acts -- Data types, instruments and instrument-induced effects : a synthesis -- The structure of requests in English (and its national varieties) -- Requests in cross-cultural pragmatics research -- Requests in discourse pragmatics and conversation analytic research -- Responses to requests -- Towards a definition of requests -- Methodology : database, data collection, and data analysis -- The non-elicited data : conversational corpus data in AmE and BrE -- Corpora used in the present study : general information -- Comparability of discourse types and speaker populations in sub-corpora -- Request identification in conversational data -- The elicited data : DCT data in AmE and BrE -- The production questionnaire -- Data collection and comparability of speaker populations in the DCTs -- Comparability of Field and Laboratory data sets -- The coding scheme -- Head act strategies -- Modification strategies -- Mitigating request modification strategies -- Aggravating request modification strategies -- Statistical treatment -- Synopsis : research objectives -- Results I : requests in AmE and BrE informal conversations -- Request head acts -- Sentence types -- Head act strategies -- Directness levels -- Mitigating modification strategies -- Types of mitigating modifiers employed -- Specific mitigating modifiers employed -- Negative face mitigating modifiers -- Positive face mitigating modifiers -- Aggravating modification strategies -- Correlation of head act and modification strategies -- Responses to requests -- Discussion -- Interim summary -- Cross-cultural variation in requests -- Evaluation -- Results II : requests in non-elicited conversations and DCTs -- Request head acts -- Sentence types -- Head act strategies -- Directness levels -- Mitigating modification strategies -- Types of mitigating modifiers employed -- Specific mitigating modifiers employed -- Aggravating modification strategies -- Correlation of head act and modification strategies -- Discussion : Re-evaluating discourse completion tasks -- Conclusion -- Summary and general discussion -- Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications -- Future perspectives -- References -- Appendix -- Index.
Series:
Pragmatics & beyond new series, 0922-842X ; volume 265
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