Предыдущая страница реферата | 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11 | Следующая страница реферата

Literature is often compared to a mirror reflecting life.
Writers strive to make their personages sound natural, and utterances of literary personages can be linguistically analyzed just like speech of real people. Here are some examples of indirect speech acts generated by heroes of works written by modern British and US authors. a) In the short story “The Life Guard” by John Wain young
Jimmy Townsend works as a beach lifeguard. One morning he wants to get rid of an unwelcome visitor in his hut at the beach and asks him to quit using an indirect speech act (a representative with the illocutionary force of a directive): “I’m going swimming now. I have to keep in practice.” The visitor, however, does not understand the implication and answers: “I am not stopping you.”
Jimmy tries another indirect speech act: “I have to leave the hut empty.” The implication dawns on the visitor, but he is not sure:
“You mean nobody is allowed in the hut?” Jimmy uses an indirect speech act to invite the visitor to join him for a swim (a request disguised as a question): “Why don’t you come in swimming with me if you want something to do?”

To prove his efficiency as an instructor, Jimmy wants to teach swimming to an old fat lady. The woman wants Jimmy to leave her alone, but being polite, avoids a command and uses representatives with the illocutionary force of a directive: “The water is cold?”; “It’s the first time I am on the beach this year”; “I’ll never swim the Channel, that I do know.”

Scared that he will be fired because no one needs a lifeguard at a safe beach, Jimmy plans to arrange a fake rescue.
He asks his former schoolmate to pretend drowning: “I want you to go in swimming, pretend to get into trouble, wave to me, and I’ll swim out and tow you back to shore.” The boy declines Jimmy’s idea using an indirect speech act (a question with the illocutionary force of a statement): “What d’you think I am, daft?”

b) In Thorton Wilder’s novel titled "Heaven’s my destination" a young man named Mr.Brush asks Mr. Bohardus, a forensic photographer, to sell a photograph:

“- There, now, I guess, we got some good pictures.

- Do you sell copies of these, Mr.Bohardus?

- We're not allowed to, I reckon. Leastways there never was no great demand.

- I was thinking I could buy some extra. I haven't been taken for more than two years. I know my mother would like some.

Bohardus stared at him narrowly.

- I don't think it shows a good spirit to make fun of this work, Mr.Brown, and I tell you I don't like it. In fifteen years here nobody's made fun of it, not even murderers haven't.

- Believe me, Mr.Bohardus, said Brush, turning red, "I wasn't making fun of anything. I knew you made good photos, and that's all I thought about."

Bohardus maintained an angry silence, and when Brush was led away refused to return his greeting”.

The question “Do you sell copies of these, Mr.Bohardus?” has another meaning, that of a compliment. Compliments have a restricted sphere of usage, and the photographer’s negative reply showed that under the circumstances it was not appropriate to compliment a policeman. The compliment was rejected in a friendly manner. But Brush broke the standard scheme of an indirect speech act and turned a compliment into a literal request. The policeman was insulted: he thought that Brush mocked at him. Brush tried to make amends, but to no avail. Brush violated the communicative convention, and his words were interpreted as an affront.

c) Earl Fox, the protagonist of the novel “Live with lightning” composed by Mitchell Wilson, is a famous physicist aged 50. His social status is high, but he falls out of love with his science and feels inner emptiness and despair. The author uses a rhetoric question to describe the first fit of Fox’s indifference to physics:

“Realization had come slowly, against his reluctance. He was listening to a paper being read, and he found himself asking
“Who cares?” It was the first open admission that curiosity was dead.”

Rhetoric questions are pseudoquestions because the speaker knows the answer and does not ask for information. On the contrary, a rhetoric question conveys some information to the hearer and seeks to convince the hearer of something [15,97].
What Fox meant by the question “Who cares?” was the statement statement “Nobody cares.”

d) Further on in Mitchell Wilson’s novel, Fox interviews
Eric Gorin, a young scientist who applied for a job in his lab.
Closing their conversation, Fox wants to show his friendliness by asking a formal personal question: "And did you have a pleasant summer, Mr. Gorin?” Its nonliteral meaning is that of a directive:

“Relax. Don’t be so tense.” Fox expects a conventional reply
“Yes, thank you”, but Gorin’s utterance breaks the rules of speech etiquette: “A pleasant summer?” Erik was silent for the time of two long breaths. “No, sir,” he said explosively. “I damn well did not have a pleasant summer!” Fox is startled into silence: Gorin not only took the question literally, but did not follow the politeness principle as well.

e) “I'm not quite sure how long you've known the
Fieldings” (J. Fowles); "I'm dying to know what you did with all the lions you slaughtered," said Susie Boyd (S. Maugham); “I'd like to know why she's gone off like this.” (J. Fowles).

Indirect questions in the utterances above are compound sentences whose principle clauses contain predicates of cognition while subordinate clauses specify the desired information.

f) Indirect speech acts are frequent when a person of a lower social status addresses a person of a higher social status.
Often they contain additional markers of politeness like apologies, appellations to the hearer’s volition, etc. For instance, a maid says to her mistress: “I'm sorry to have disturbed you, Madam... I only wondered whether you wished to see me.” (D. du Maurier). A visitor says to his hostess: “I only want to know the truth, if you.will tell it to me” (E. Voynich).

g) “A question in a question” is also an indirect speech act. The speaker asks if the hearer is knowledgeable about something, and the informative question is included into the whole construction as a complement. Such utterances give the hearer a chance “to quit the game” by answering only the direct question, e.g. "Do you happen to know when it is open?" - "Oh, no, no. I haven't been there myself" (L. Jones).

h) A reliable way to be polite is to express a communicative intention as a request to perform it. Such a request can be formulated as a separate utterance, a part of an utterance or a composite sentence, for instance: “May I ask you where you are staying?” (C. Snow); “Might I inquire if you are the owner?” (L. Jones); “What are your таin ideas so far, sir, if you don't mind me asking?” (K. Amis); “I should be very much obliged if you would tell me as exact as possible how Mrs. Haddo, died” (S. Maugham); “Would it bother you if I asked you a question about how you lost your job with Axminster?” (D.
Francis).

i) A gradual transition from an indirect speech act complying with the politeness principle to an impolite direct speech act with the same illocutionary force is shown in an episode of the popular cartoon “Shrek”. After Shrek had rescued
Princess Fiona from the dragon, the girl asked him to remove his helmet, so that he could kiss her: “You did it! You rescued me!
The battle is over. You can remove your helmet now.”

The italicized utterance is an indirect speech act (a representative with the illocutionary force of a directive).

Рекомендуем скачать другие рефераты по теме: реферат по биологии 7 класс, контрольные по математике, курсовик.



Предыдущая страница реферата | 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11 | Следующая страница реферата

Поделитесь этой записью или добавьте в закладки