| Abstract [eng] |
This doctoral dissertation belongs to the area of linguistic pragmatics. The subject dealt with in this study is the analysis and comparison of spoken requests in Lithuanian and British English. The aim of the study was to compare politeness strategiess and linguistic realizations of requests, to identify and describe the similarities and differences between these directives in the chosen languages. The data has been collected by means of the Discourse Completion Test, which is an open-ended questionnaire used to prompt requests. The answers of 100 Lithuanian university undergraduates and 100 English university undergraduates were studied. The data classification was based upon the coding scheme of Blum-Kulka et al. (1989), which is designed to study requests as a sequence of utterances, which are made of a head act (the minimal unit of the realization of the request’s illocutionary force) and its internal and external modifications. Brown & Levinson’s (1987) theory with its distinction between positive politeness (closeness, solidarity) and negative politeness (distance, deference) was applied. Despite the numerous similarities that were found, the results demonstrate that Lithuanian requests show less consideration of the hearer’s freedom and privacy, less careful pessimism, more directness, and greater belief in a favourable outcome of the speech act, etc. However Lithuanians are inclined to soften their requests by conveying closeness, appealing to the duties and obligations of the hearer, etc. This proves that Lithuanians are more positive politeness-oriented, when compared to the negatively polite English cultural ethos. Different polite ways of how to consider the other are determined by different cultural values, believes and perceptions. |
