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moves of an exchange. They are initiating acts; responding acts; and follow- up acts which are optionally recursive.
b. Subclasses of acts: within each of the primary classes, subclasses are
identified on the basis of the response prospected. Further subclasses are identified only if the responses prospected are different enough to warrant the
setting up of separate subclasses.
3. Characterization of Discourse Acts
Each primary classes of acts has its own subclasses of acts, they are
characterized as follows:
a. Subclasses of initiating acts
It can be identified within each of the three primary classes by looking the response they prospect. Tsui 1994 classifies utterances realizing the initiating
acts into four subclasses, which is supported by the way they are reported. According to her, ‘all utterances can be reported by the general speech act verb
‘say’, which describes or reports the locution of the utterance. Initiating utterances can be reported by two general speech act verbs, ‘ask’ and ‘tell’,
which report or describe their general discourse function’. Therefore, Tsui classifies two subtypes of saying into four subclass of initiating acts:
1. Elicitations
Utterances, which realize elicitations, can be reported as ‘ask’. Thus, the term elicitations refer to the utterances that solely solicit an
obligatory verbal response or its non-verbal surrogate. The example taken from The Day After Tomorrow is as follow:
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Sam Hall : Hey, wheres Laura?
Brian Parks : She was just right there.
2. Requesitives
Utterances, which realize requesitives, can be reported as ‘ask to’. Thus, the term requesitives refers to the utterances, which solicit non-
verbal actions, and the addressee is given the option of carrying out the solicited action. The example taken from The Day After Tomorrow
is as follow:
Laura Chapman : Could you hold this for a sec? Sam Hall
: Yeah, sure. 3.
Directives Utterances, which realize directives, can be reported as ‘tell to’. Thus,
the term directives refer to the utterances that prospect a non-verbal action from the addressee without giving himher the option of no-
compliance. The example taken from The Day After Tomorrow is:
Frank: Jack Give me your hand
4. Informatives
Utterances, which realize informative, can be reported as ‘tell that’. Informative is characterized as more general category which covers
not only utterances which provide information, but also those which provide report event or states of affairs, recount personal experience,
and express beliefs, evaluate judgements, feeling and thought. The example taken from The Day After Tomorrow is as follows:
Jason Evans : [as he meets a gorgeous woman] Hi, Im Jason
b. Subclasses of responding acts
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It is characterized based on the fact that not all-responding utterances are of equal status, some are ‘preferred’, and others are ‘dispreferred’. This
‘preference organization’ refers to the formal features of the design of turns. Based on the basis of such linguistic evidence, there are two types of responding
acts. One, which responds positively as positive responding acts and the other responds negatively as negative responding acts. Typically, ‘preferred’ seconds to
first pair parts generally contains brief utterances given without delay and are unmitigated. Meanwhile, ‘dispreferred’ seconds to first pair parts not only
contain more linguistic material, but also contain common features of delay. There is also a third type of responding act named temporization. It is
‘dispreferred’ response since it does not fulfil the interactional expecting set up, but it does not challenge the presuppositions of the speaker instead of a
postponing the decision-making. It also contains linguistic features of delay such as fillers, particles, and so on. This following example from The Day After
Tomorrow will explain the difference:
Jack Hall : Where are you staying?
Sam Hall :
Theyre finding a place for us with kids here in New York City.
Jack Hall : Are you sure you cant get home any sooner than
tomorrow?
Sam Hall : Well, looks, Dad, I would if I could, you know. Its just. …
This smell is unbearable, Dad. Jack Hall who worries about his son Sam calls him and elicits information
where Sam is staying. Sam gives a simple answer as the response of that elicitation by giving the information without delay. This can be categorized as
positive response, which is ‘preferred’ response to first pair parts. By contrast, when Jack Hall elicits a confirmation the time Sam can go home, Sam gives a
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negative response using features of delay Well, looks, it is just….. This response can be categorized as ‘dispreferred’ response since it does not fulfill the
illocutionary intent of the first pair. c.
Subclasses of follow-up acts It is used to support the three subclasses of responding acts since the
identification of those subclass of responding acts are also supported by the different kinds of follow-up acts that they prospect. There are three kinds of
follow-up regarding the responding act subclasses. First, for the positive responding act, which can be followed by the enthusiastic endorsements of the
positive outcome of the interaction. This kind of follow-up can be identified as an endorsement. Second, for the negative responding act which is followed by the
minimizing of the face damage done, the follow-up used can be a way of accepting the negative outcome. This can be identified as a concession. Third, for a
temporization, which is followed by postponement, the kind of follow up can be identified as an acknowledgement. Besides the above three subclass of follow up,
there is a further subclass of follow-up act which occurs as an optional structure of an exchange which is called as turn passing signal. The Taxonomy is as follow:
Table 1 Taxonomy of Discourse Acts
Elements of structure
I R
F1 F2 Move Initiating
Responding Follow-up
1 Follow-up2
Head act: primary
class Initiating
initiation Responding
response Follow-up 1
Follow-up2
Head act: subclass
Eliciation Requesitive
Directive informative
Positive Negative
temporization Endorsement
Concession acknowledgement
Turn-passing
Source: Tsui, 1994: 61
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However, since the structure of adjacency pair contains of initiating acts and responding acts, it is not really necessary to include the identification of
follow-up acts in the analysis.
H.
Elicitations
1. The Definition of Elicitations
