when an imperative is used to perform a request for example, “Pass me the salt”. In an indirect speech act the illocutionary force of the act is not derivable from the
surface structure, as when an interrogative form serves as a request for example, ‘can you pass me the salt?’.
Refusals, as all the other speech acts, occur in all languages. However, not all languages cultures refuse in the same way nor do they feel comfortable refusing the
same request. The speech acts of refusal occur when a speaker directly or indirectly says ‘no’ to the request. Refusal is a face-threatening act to the listener requester
inviter, because it contradicts his or her expectations, and is often realized through indirect strategies. Thus, it requires a high level of pragmatic competence Al-Eryani:
2007.
2.5.1 Classification of Speech Acts
Fraser 1975 presents an analysis about classification of speech acts that similar in Searle 1975. The five-way classification rests with what it seen to be the
intent of the speaker in performing the act in the first place. These intentions can be summarize as follow:
1 Representative Acts – the speaker intent the utterance to count as
committing him to the truth of what he has said. Examples include acts of
stating, claiming, admitting, reporting, pointing out, mentioning, testifying, and speculating.
2 Directive Acts – the speaker intends his utterance to count as an attempt to
get the hearer to carry out the act specified in his utterance. Example include pleading, soliciting, requesting, ordering, demanding, arguing,
suggesting, instructing, commanding, and daring. 3
Evaluative Acts – the speaker intends his utterance to count as a reflection of his evaluation of the state of affairs specified in his utterance. Examples
include thanking, criticizing, praising, condemning, congratulating, applauding, and complaining.
4 Commissive Acts – the speaker intends his utterance to count as
committing him to carrying out the state of affairs specified in his utterance. Examples include promising, swearing, obligating, and vowing.
5 Established Acts – the speaker intends his utterance to count as creating
the new state of affairs specified in his utterance. Examples include authorizing, forbidding, permitting, granting, cancelling, appointing,
classifying, excusing, and forgiving.
2.5.2 Indirectness
In an excellent discussion Dascal 1983 as quoted by Thomas 1995: 120 makes the point that indirectness is costly and risky. It is ‘costly’ in the sense that an
indirect utterance takes longer for the speaker to produce and longer for the hearer to
process a fact which has frequently been confirmed in psycholinguistic experiments. It is ‘risky’ in the sense that the hearer may not understand what the speaker is getting
at Thomas: 1995. Individuals and cultures vary widely in how, when and why they use an
indirect speech act in preference to a direct one. Nevertheless, there are the number of factors which appear to govern indirectness in all languages and cultures. The axes
governing indirectness are “universal” in that they capture the types of consideration likely to govern pragmatic choices in any language, but the way they applied varies
considerably from culture to culture Thomas 1995: 124. The main factors are listed below:
a The relative power of the speaker over the hearer
b The social distance between the speaker and the hearer
c
The degree to which X is rated an imposition in culture Y
d
Relative rights and obligations between the speaker and the hearer.
2.5.3 Power
