Realization of the Command Speech Act in English – Conventionalized Indirectness With the Use of Negative Politeness

Abstract

What makes order / command different from other directives is not any linguistic elements, but the status of interlocutors. Accordingly, whenever the addressor’s status gives him / her the right to order something, i.e. whenever he / she is in position to punish addressee’s potential refusal to follow the order, we have the speech act of ordering / commanding regardless of linguistic means used to perform that speech act. Order / command, like any other speech act, can be realized as direct or indirect act. As an indirect speech act, it can be realized following some established pattern (conventional indirectness) or not following any such pattern (unconventional indirectness). Conventional indirectness can be achieved using positive or negative politeness strategies, or without the use of politeness. This paper analyzes patterns for the realization of ordering / commanding in English as a conventional indirect speech act with the use of negative politeness.