Abstract:
This study aims to delve into the unobservable dimensions of deciding
and acting in a pragmatically significant speech event. Utilizing a Discourse
Completion Test questionnaire, it seeks to find out the structure and
pragmatic functions that lie behind EFL learners’ choice of specific wording
while engaged in performing a recurrent speech act in Iran i.e. compliments.
To this aim, 30 EFL learners were requested to self-assess their performance
in a number of presumed situations in which they were required to make
compliments to different addressees. The participants were adult intermediate
EFL learners in 18-35 range of age. They were of both sexes and studied
English between 1.5 to 5 years. To complete the tasks, they both made notes
of their responses and uttered out simultaneously why they complimented in
a certain way. Their responses along with transcriptions of their recorded
think-aloud protocols were subsequently analyzed in this paper as for their
structures and pragmatic functions according to Manes & Wolfson (1981),
and Brown & Levinson (1987).
Machine summary:
"Then, the responses were coded for the functions they served according to Manes (1983) and Wolfson (1989) as the following (the last item of which has been added by the author): - to establish solidarity between speaker and addressee → SOL - to express approval or admiration toward the listener → APP - to strengthen or replace other speech acts like apologizing, greeting, reprimanding, or thanking → OTH - to soften acts such as criticism → SOF - to offer praise, to reinforce or encourage the desired behavior in specific situations, such as teaching and learning →DES - as sarcasm → SAR - as a conversation opener → COP - to show interest in the issue at hand for example by asking follow-up questions→FOL Finally, the respondents’ protocols were analyzed to find which functions were mainly served in each discourse situation and under what structural pattern.
In this study, we focus on those presented by Manes and Wolfson, illustrated in figure 2, plus one other function added by the author (FOL): SOL COP SAR Complimen APP OTH t function s DES FOL SOF Figure 2 Manes and Wolfson’s functions of compliments SOL → to establish solidarity between speaker and addressee APP → to express approval or admiration toward the listener OTH → to strengthen or replace other speech acts like apologizing, greeting, reprimanding, or thanking, request SOF → to soften acts such as criticism DES → to offer praise, to reinforce or encourage the desired behavior in specific situations, such as teaching and learning SAR → as sarcasm COP → as conversation opener FOL →to show interest in the issue at hand for example by asking follow-up questions We sought to know that the compliments made in each of the situations presented in the questionnaire served which of the aforementioned functions."