Everyday people communicate. We utter requests, commands, questions, etcetera. The way we do so (the wording of these requests, commands, questions, etcera) shapes the way the listener infers the utterance. That inference shapes their response. In class today, we learned that people speak using indirect speech acts and direct speech acts. It is most common that we say things indirectly to soften or even disguise our intent to the listener, though usually the listener (assuming they understand our cultural and social linguistic mannerisms) can easily understand our exact meaning. We do this to maintain the relationship with the listener, whichever type of relationship that may be, and abide by the rules of communication.
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ReplyDeleteCommunication is a very complex process of information exchange between people. We are able to express what we are feeling and relay our intentions to others through the different ways which Liana mentioned above -i.e questions, commands, etc.
ReplyDeleteBut we don't always convey our thoughts explicitly when we are talking, and may hide our true meaning behind words; and such is the case when we use sarcasm. A person may be able to express different intentions, which depending on the context, may have different meanings through the use of sarcasm. For instance, a person might be trying to make a joke or hurt someone.
I found this sentence online which I thought was funny: "Mommy, I wanna grow up to be a neurotic bitch just like you." on http://sgforums.com/forums/1769/topics/350299 -#57
When I read it, I thought it was funny, but as I thought about the meaning behind it, I think the words can be funny, hurtful, and also give us information about the person at whom it's directed. The sentence above tells us about the person's personality, and that she's not someone easily to get along with. If "mommy" is to take this sentence as criticism instead of an insult, it could potentially motivate 'mommy' to try and be more flexible and change her personality.
When people use direct speech and indirect speech acts to convey something, the active listener may infers different things from what was said. For instance, on Monday, September 9, I went to buy sardines for my boyfriend’s dad and this is the conversation we had on my phone:
ReplyDeleteMe: So which sardines do you want?
Dad: Look for the one with the rectangular shaped box.
Me: Ok, there are many types of sardines in a rectangular shaped box.
Dad: Name a few of them so I can remember which one I usually get.
From this direct speech act, my boyfriend’s dad inferred that since the beginning of the conversation that I didn’t know the which sardines he usually gets. In contrary, I did assure him I didn’t know and he inferred that I didn’t because A, I called him for more information and B, I was still looking through the choices of sardines even though he hinted to me that it was in a rectangular shaped box. From the last line I inferred that he had no clue or wasn’t sure of the name of them because he asked me to name the brands available. Now let’s look at the next example taken from two youtube videos online named How Not to Wear Makeup- Oscars Edition and Unboxing: Birchbox vs. Ipsy-August, from eleventhgorgeous on September 9th, 2013.
1.Stefanie: When you blush do you naturally blush one color?
Both: No!
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2.Tracy: It make your nose look so hot, like you got a nose job.
Stefanie: Because people regularly get them.
The first example of indirect speech act make us infer that they are using sarcasm to get a point across. “When you blush do you blush one color?” We can infer that people know that they can only blush one color. Unless you are a make up artist and love playing with color you can blush two colors, but when they both say, “No!” one can infer that this is a joke in a way because in reality people blush one color.
The second example is inferring both indirectly that all people have nose jobs and that its a norm in society, when in reality it’s not. Unless you see the video you can predict that their wording is a play on reality.
We can only accept direct and indirect speech acts when we understand what the communicator is talking about through inferring. Many times if we fail to infer then meaning is lost and communication is lost.
Communication is important for all of us. How do we communicate is also important. This is to ensure the listener does not misunderstand our intentions or make sure they know what we want. For example, the situation we talked in class. A driver was caught by a police officer. When the driver was asked to show his driver license, the driver also showed a $50 bill. The driver was insinuating something. The driver hinted "Police officer, you can take this $50 if you don't give me a ticket."
ReplyDeleteYet, why the driver didn't say it obviously? Because the driver knew that he or she was bribing the police officer which was illegal. The driver did not actually say it so that he would not get a ticket "legally".
Another example is to ask your classmate to close the windows. As Liana said, "we say things indirectly to soften our intent to the listener." The window inside the classroom are opened. I feel cold so I would like to ask our classmates to close the windows for me without making them feel that it is a command instead of a request. Hence, we say it in an indirect way.
Me: It is cold,right?(Looking at the window and the classmate at the same time)
random classmate: Yes
At this time, my classmate should be able to understand what i want. However, if the classmate don't get it. We can say--
Me: Do you think it is a good idea to close the windows?
An example from our class.
We all know that when we say things directly, the listener will be able to understand what we want easily. However, because of the social norm and try not to make the listener to feel bad, somehow we need to speak indirectly.