addressees somehow affects the request strategies employed by the requesters to increase the possibility of the compliance of the requests. Thus, contextual
information also has a vital role in dialogues in which the participants make some requests. Some experts have conducted studies in analyzing contextual information
in conversations Hymes, 1972; Halliday and Hasan, 1989; Brown and Levinson, 1987; Nikula 1996.
Brown and Levinson 1987 invent three factors that can influence conversations. They are as follows.
a. The Social Distance D between Speakers S and Hearers H
This is related to the roles of the speakerS and the hearerH and what each of whom represents in certain interactions e.g. one represents some person
with more superior status over the other. Usually, D is based on the frequency of interaction and the kinds of goods and service exchanged between speaker S and
hearer H. For the purpose of this study, requesters are represented by and considered as speakers S and addressees or requestees are represented by and
considered as hearers H. Examples of social roles between participants are a police- a thief, a lecturer
– a student, a president – a minister, a mother – a son, a friend
– a friend, strangers etc. The social roles between participants can determine whether the
participants have a close relationship D-Close or a distant relationship D-Far. Participants who are family members e.g. son and father are considered to have a
close relationship D-Close due to frequency of interactions or meetings. Other participants having a close relationship are those whose social roles are, for
example, friends, employer-employee, teacher-student, etc. On the other hand, participants having a distant relationship are, for example, a customer-a shop
assistant, strangers, police-motor driver, a show host- guest, etc.
b. The Relative ‘Power’ P of S and H
As the name suggests, this is related to the power of interlocutors. What is meant by power here is that what interlocutors have which enables him to be
superior to the other interlocutors or vice versa that is what makes interlocutors be inferior to or less powerful than the others. Having high power P:SH, a speaker
can impose what he wants to a hearer. An example of this is that an employer is absolutely superior to hisher employees, and heshe can ask the employees
whatever heshe wants – regarding job assignments – without feeling guilty or
unpleasant because heshe has the authority to do so. On the other hand, the employee is considered to have lower power because heshe works for the employer
P:SH. Furthermore, there are two more possibility i.e. two people have the
same power or are socially equal to each other e.g. friends P:S=H and two people having no power over each other i.e. strangers P-None. Strangers cannot impose
what their wants to other strangers because that will make the situation become awkward since both have not met frequently and are not close in relationship.
c. The Absolute Ranking R of Impositions in the Particular Culture
