Memory for the form and force of declaratives and interrogatives

Memory for the illocutionary force and surface form of direct and indirect speech acts was studied in two recall tasks. Both examined the effects of the context of original presentation on subjects’ ability to recall declarative and interrogative sentences. Subjects more accurately recalled the verbatim form of indirect requests and offers than that of direct assertions and queries. When prompted by contexts that preserved or changed in illocutionary force of a declarative or interrogative, subjects were equally likely to recall sentences originally used as indirect requests and offers. However, they more frequently recalled sentences originally used as direct assertions or queries when prompted by force-preserving contexts than when prompted by force-changing contexts.