Responding to indirect speech acts

Indirect speech acts, like the request Do you know the time?, have both a literal meaning, here “I ask you whether you know the time,” and an indirect meaning “I request you to tell me the time.” In this paper I outline a model of how listeners understand such speech acts and plan responses to them. The main proposals are these. The literal meaning of indirect speech acts can be intended to be taken seriously (along with the indirect meaning) or merely pro forma. In the first case listeners are expected to respond to both meanings, as in Yes, I do—it's six, but in the second case only to the indirect meaning, as in It's six. There are at least six sources of information listeners use in judging whether the literal meaning was intended seriously or pro forma, as well as whether there was intended to be any indirect meaning. These proposals were supported in five experiments in which ordinary requests for information were made by telephone of 950 local merchants.     

The polite wiggle‐room effect in charity donation decisions

We extend research on charity donations by exploring an everyday tactic for increasing compliance: asking politely. We consider three possible effects of politeness on charity donations: a positive effect, a negative effect, and a wiggle‐room effect where the perception of the request is adjusted to decline donating without feeling selfish. Results from six experiments systematically supported the polite wiggle‐room effect. In hypothetical donations contexts, indirect requests were judged more polite. In real donation contexts, though, indirect requests were not judged as more polite and had no consistent effect on donation decision. Rather, the decision to donate predicted the perceived politeness of the request, independently of its phrasing. Experiment 4 provided causal evidence that participants justified their donation decisions by adjusting their perception of the request. The polite wiggle‐room effect has important implications for organizations that seek to increase compliance while maintaining a positive image.     

Appreciation of indirect requests by left- and right-brain-damaged patients: the effects of verbal context and conventionality of wording

Unilaterally right (RHD)- and left (LHD)-hemisphere-damaged patients were tested on their ability to discern the correct, nonliteral interpretation of indirect requests (e.g., "Can you open the door?") embedded in short vignettes and presented without any pictorial support. Each stimulus vignette incorporated two verbal cues--context and conventionality of form--designed to influence interpretations of a critical utterance located at the end of each vignette. Contexts were biased to encourage either the direct, literal reading of critical utterances as a question, or the indirect meaning of the utterance as a request for action. The critical utterances themselves were either high in conventionality (e.g., "Can you ...?") which encouraged an indirect interpretation, or low in conventionality (e.g., "Is it possible for you to ...?") which encouraged a direct interpretation. Results indicated that RHD patients were significantly impaired, relative to controls, in their ability to make judgments based on contextual information. RHD patients performed comparably to the aphasic, LHD group in the use of both context and conventionality. These results replicate earlier findings of disrupted indirect request comprehension by RHD patients tested in pictorially supported paradigms.     

Hey Buddy,Can You Spare Seventeen Cents? Mindful Persuasion and the Pique Technique1

According to the pique technique, a target is more likely to comply if mindless refusal is disrupted by a strange or unusual request. We demonstrated the use of this technique in two experiments. In Experiment 1, passersby on a local municipal wharf were approached by a confederate panhandler who made either one of two strange requests: “Can you spare 17¢ (or 37¢)?” or made either one of two typical requests “Can you spare a quarter (or any change)?” Subjects in the strange conditions were almost 60% more likely to give money than those receiving the typical plea. In addition, a strange request piqued interest as evidenced by increased verbal inquiries about the request. Experiment 2 replicated the first experiment in a laboratory setting and provides additional evidence (via a cognitive response analysis) that strange requests piqued subjects' interest in the appeal as well as increased liking for the panhandler.     

Sex differences in parental directives to young children

This study investigated how children learn sex-associated strategies for requesting action. We compared the directives which mothers and fathers address to their 2 1/2- to 5-year-old children. Ten children, 5 boys and 5 girls, engaged separately with each parent in a construction task. Fathers produced more directives than mothers and tended to phrase them as imperatives (e.g., Put the screw in) or as highly indirect “hints” (e.g., The wheel's going to fall off) more often than mothers, who relied more on relatively transparent indirect forms (e.g., Can you put the screw in?). There were no differences in the form of the directives addressed to girls and boys, nor were there any cross-sex effects. Parental modeling, rather than differential socialization of girls and boys, appears to be the mechanism by which children learn to request action in sex-associated ways.     

Acquiring Resources from Intimates When Obligation Substitutes for Persuasion

The acquisition of needed resources is a necessary part of human activity. Persuasion is a tool that can be used to acquire commodities. However, because of obligations inherent in intimate relationships, the necessity of elaborated persuasive messages is lessened Furthermore, when an intimate's request is rejected, negative responses and counterpersuasion are likely. This article presents the results of a study in which three measures of intimacy are related to the obligation to grant requests for resources, the obligation to offer resources in a time of need, characteristics of requests for resources, and characteristics of responses to rejection. Although not all three measures yielded identical results, increasing intimacy with a potential helper increased obligations to grant requests for resources, and obligation to offer resources in a time of need. Moreover, increasing intimacy was negatively associated with request elaboration, frequency of explanations, and inducements. When responding to rejection, increasing intimacy was negatively related to forgiving statements and positively related to counterpersuasion. Finally, after rejection, intimates composed messages, judged to be less polite than those that contained their initial request. The politeness of postrejection messages created by nonintimates was not perceived to differ from that of their initial requests.     

Yes-no answering systems in young children

Across the world's languages two quite different systems are used in answering negative questions such as Aren't you going? In English the speaker answers yes or no depending on the speaker's intention about the matter (e.g., Yes, I am going, if the speaker intends to go). In Japanese, the speaker answers yes or no in agreement or disagreement with the literal statement of the question (e.g., No, I am going, if the speaker is going and thus disagrees with the literal form of the question). One purpose of this study was to see which of these linguistic systems is acquired earlier. The other was to see whether the two systems work independently in bilingual children. The data on positive and negative questions from English and Japanese monolingual children showed that the English system is easier to acquire and the data from Japanese-English bilingual children showed that they used the English system to answer Japanese negative questions. The results suggest that the English system is acquired earlier than the Japanese system and that the two systems interact in bilingual children. These results were discussed in terms of sentence verification models.     

The interactive effects of request form and speaker status on judgments of requests

The interactive effects of request form and speaker status on judgments of requests were investigated in a laboratory study of metapragmatics. College students (N=132) read scenarios in which speakers made requests of them. Speakers were higher in status, peers, or lower in status than the subjects, and the requests were imperatives with semantic aggravators, embedded imperatives, or permission directives with semantic softeners. Subjects rated the speakers with respect to how rude/polite, humble/arrogant, and powerful/weak they were being. Significant interactions were obtained for the first two ratings, indicating that the speaker status effect was stronger with permission directives than with the other requests. These findings suggest that listeners view unexpectedly indirect requests as more impolite and sarcastic than requests used in other situations and, more generally, that language meaning is a function of both form and context.     

Constraints on the processing of indirect speech acts: evidence from aphasiology

The ability of anterior aphasics and patients with right-hemisphere damage to comprehend both the literal and nonliteral readings of indirect speech acts was examined. Subjects viewed videotaped episodes in which one actor asked another “Can you X?” and the second actor responded with either an action or a simple “Yes.” Subjects judged whether the response was appropriate given its context. Anterior aphasics could comprehend the nonliteral but not the literal reading, supporting models that posit that people have direct access to nonliteral but conventional readings. Patients with right-hemisphere damage could appreciate the direct reading, but failed to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate action-responses. This finding suggests that it may be possible to dissociate the pragmatic and syntactic aspects of comprehension of indirect speech acts.     

Acquiring Assistance from Others The Effect of Indirect Requests and Relational Intimacy on Verbal Compliance

This research examines the effectiveness of indirect requests in attaining assistance from intimate and nonintimate others. Prior research indicates that people are inclined to make requests using indirect forms. However, help-seeking research has neglected to consider request forms, and research on indirect requests has focused mainly on issues of interpretation. The results of this study indicate that the directness of a request increases request force and also interacts with relational intimacy to influence verbal compliance. Directness is more effective at eliciting verbal compliance at higher levels of intimacy. The experimental findings highlight issues concerning the definition of indirectness and also the utility of merging interpretation and compliance in language research.     

Effects of household sex composition on the salience of one's gender in the spontaneous self-concept

It was hypothesized that being a boy or a girl becomes more salient in a child's self-concept to the extent the other sex numerically predominates in the child's household. This prediction was based upon an information-processing, distinctiveness postulate that a person contemplating a complex stimulus (such as the self) selectively notices and encodes its more distinctive, information-rich aspects. The spontaneous self-concept elicited by nondirective “Tell us about yourself” interviews of 560 school children were scored for spontaneous mention of one's gender. As predicted, boys spontaneously mentioned their maleness more often when they came from households where females were in the majority; girls mentioned their femaleness more often when from households with male majorities; boys mentioned their maleness more often when from father-absent than from father-present homes. Incidental findings are that gender is more salient in the negation self-concept (“Tell us what you are not”) than in the affirmation self-concept (“Tell us about yourself”) especially for girls and that gender becomes increasingly salient as the child grows older.     

What young children think you see when their eyes are closed

The common assumption that young children egocentrically believe you cannot see them when their own eyes are closed was investigated in two studies. It was found that 2.5-4-year-olds, but not 5-year-olds and adults, would indeed often give negative reply to the experimenter's question “Do I see you?” when their eyes were closed and covered with their hands. However, they would also correctly reply that the experimenter did see their arm and an object placed in front of them and did not see their eyes and back, indicating that they were making veridical, nonegocentric inferences about the experimenter's visual experience. In addition, their eyes being visible to the experimenter did not prove to be either a necessary or a sufficient condition for their judgment that the experimenter could see “them” (“you”). It was concluded that, in this context, adults take “you” to mean their whole body while young children take it to mean primarily their face region. Speculations were made as to how young children could have acquired this meaning, and about possible similarities and differences between the self conceptions of young children and adults.     

SOME UNQUESTIONED ASSUMPTIONS

I In 1848 Frederic Bastiat wrote an article in the Journal des Debats in which he said, Man struggles against pain and suffering. However, he is condemned by nature to suffering and to privation if he does not take upon himself the effort of work. Hence he has only the choice between two evils…. Up to now, however, no remedy has been found for it, except for one man to avail himself of the work of others…so that all work is for the one and all enjoyment is for the other. Hence [we have] slavery and robbery. [Today] the oppressor no longer directly compels the oppressed through his own strength. There is still a tyrant and a victim, but now the state, i.e. the law itself, is placed as a mediator between the two. What could be better for the purpose of stifling our doubts and vanquishing all resistance? We turn to the state and say to it: I find that between my enjoyment and my work there exists no relation that satisfies me. In order to bring about the desired balance, I would like to take away a little from others. However, that would be dangerous were I to do it myself. Can you, state, facilitate matters for me? Can you not assign me to a favorable position, or assign a more unfavorable one to my competitor? Can you not grant me a special “protection” and, not without plausible reason, lend me capital which you have taken from its possessors? Or, can you not educate my children at public expense? or guarantee me a carefree life from age 50 onwards?… In this case the law would be acting for me, and I would have all the advantages of exploitation without its risks and its onus.     

AN INVESTIGATION OF COMPLIANCE-GAINING AS POLITENESS

This study considers an alternative perspective on the compliance-gaining phenomenon, specifically the theory of politeness articulated by Brown and Levinson (1978). They posit that all interaction is characterized by concern over the other person's autonomy needs and his or her desire to be liked, manifested in message behavior that addresses these needs (i.e., politeness). Brown and Levinson's typology of politeness strategies was translated into 32 items to which 155 respondents indicated likelihood of use and perceived politeness. Respondents assessed the items while imagining themselves in one of eight hypothetical scenarios created to manipulate the three situational factors posited as significant by Brown and Levinson: relationship distance, relationship power, and the magnitude of the request. A factor analysis reduced the 32 tactics to four underlying factors, which in turn served as one variable set for a canonical correlation whose second variable set was the situational factors and the agent's gender. Results indicated that females and persons in close relationships use more polite tactics than males and persons in more distant relationships. Secondarily, results also indicated that persons with power use less politeness than less powerful persons.     

Concealment and disclosure: Some effects of information control on the person who controls

Goffman (Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1963) has argued that individuals must often control information about themselves that might be discreditable, but that often people are themselves uncertain how to evaluate the critical attribute. Self-perception theory predicts that in such uncertain conditions, one's attitude toward information concealed or disclosed may be formed in part by the very acts of concealment and disclosure. Twenty-three males and 29 females served as subjects in an information control situation where successfully concealing or disclosing information about oneself to a female stooge led respectively to negative and positive self-evaluations of that information. Results are interpreted to suggest that altered self-perceptions of one's own worth may be a consequence of concealment or disclosure.     

The essence of being stuck: It takes one to think you know one or work on the therapist's own family

Abstract

I would like to tell you about certain strategies I used to change my relationship with my family of origin, particularly my mother and dad. I did this in order to become more me, more differentiated from them. In doing so, paradoxically, I established a closer, more rewarding relationship with each of them and with my own children, especially my second child, Mark, and a more effective relationship with families in treatment.     

Differential Factors in the Testing of Personality: II. Differences in Maturity

ABSTRACT

The evoking freedom or “but you are free” (BYAF) technique is a social influence tactic that offers recipients the freedom to accept or decline a request. This research tested the effectiveness of the evoking freedom technique in two field experiments. Participants were asked either to complete a survey (Experiment 1) or to allow a stranger to borrow their mobile phone to make a call (Experiment 2) on an urban university campus. Half of the requests involved language that evoked freedom, and half of the requests were direct. In both experiments, results showed significantly greater compliance in the evoking freedom condition. This research extends previous work by demonstrating the effectiveness of the technique using a high-stakes request and in a culture other than that of France, where the majority of evoking freedom studies have been conducted.     

Written object naming,spelling to dictation,and immediate copying: Different tasks,different pathways?

Politeness theory posits that speakers can use verbal probabilities (e.g., there is a chance, it is likely) to hedge bad news. So far, only indirect evidence supports that claim: From the hearer's standpoint, verbal probabilities are interpreted either as plain likelihood-communication devices or as face-management devices, resulting in different risk perceptions. The present research aims to test more directly the postulate of politeness theory by focusing on the effects of speakers' intentions on risk communication. In three experiments, participants communicated a probability by choosing an expression from a list of verbal probabilities. Results consistently showed that polite speakers communicated a different risk magnitude than informative speakers. Further findings indicate that the effect of the speakers' intention depends on the valence of the uncertain outcome. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.     

Locus of control,perceived responsibility for prior fate,and helping behavior

One-hundred-and-sixty adolescents participated in two studies designed to investigate the relationship between $\text{I}\text{E}$ and helping behavior as mediated by the perceived cause of another's need. In the first study, Ss were given the opportunity to help, either “indirectly” or “directly,” a supervisor who had been over- or underpaid in a prior similar task. Internals helped more in the “direct” help than the “indirect” help conditions but their helping behavior and their perceptions of their supervisors were not consistent. The perceptions of the externals were relatively consistent with their greater help of the “overpaid” supervisor. In study 2, the Ss were given additional information to increase the possibility of their making causal attributions as a function of the supervisor's prior fate. Once again, the external subjects' helping behavior reflected their perception of their supervisor's merit. The internal subjects exhibited relatively little helping behavior regardless of their supervisors' prior fate or perceived competence.     

Effect of listener age and situation on the politeness of children's directives

Twenty-one children between the ages of 46 and 52 years made a speaker doll address other dolls that represented an adult, a peer, and a younger listener in command and request situations. Analyses of the politeness of the elicited directives revealed that the effect of the listener's age was greatest in the command situations,with the adult listener receiving the politest directives, followed by the peer and the younger child, respectively. The listener age effect diminished in the request situations, where the child had to ask a favor of the listener. In these situations, the children were very polite to all three listeners. The results are discussed in terms of status relationships between the speaker and the listener.This article is taken from a doctoral dissertation completed at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, under the direction of D. K. Vetter.