Requesting the Context: A Context Analysis of Let Statement and If Statement Requests and Commands in the Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English
Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: This paper identifies two requestive forms in the Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English, let statements and if statements, and the contextual conditions—linguistic, pragmatic, discourse and social—that co-occur with these forms. The analysis reveals a complex interplay of linguistic forms and contextual factors. The variables of social distance, social power, contingency, entitlement and specific discourse functions all influence the forms a speaker chooses when requesting, but not at the same time for both forms nor in equal measures. Rather, two or three contextual features become more or less relevant at a time, creating a distinct profile for each form. Key words: speech act, request, corpus, context
Author: Lynnelle Rhinier Brown
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2233021627