Abstract

Making request as one of the speech act has been studied in the field of pragmatics. Up to now, the major researchers are Austin (1962), Searle (1976), Dirven&Verspoor (1998), Blum-Kulka (1989), House & Kasper (1989), Evrin-Trip (1976) and so on.

Through analyzing the corpus from Modern Family, this paper aims at revealing the factors that influence the choice of request strategies, how do the factors work while the speaker is making the request and what kind of strategy do people prefer to employ under what kind of situation. 

The research shows that the major factors that influence the choice of the request strategy are respectively dominance, controllability of act, age and gender. Because Modern Family is set under the family background, the influencing factors like situation and social distance have little influence on the use of request strategy. Among four major variables, variables like dominance and ag‘’/e have nearly the same influence on the speaker’s choice of the request strategy. Controllability of act as one of the major variables has profound impact on the speaker’s choice of the request strategy. The overall tendency to employ the request strategy among family structure is by using the direct strategy and unconventionally indirect strategy.

Key Words: request; strategy; influencing factor; Modern Family

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature review-2

2.1. Studies on Speech Act Theory-2

2.2. Theories about the request strategy-2

3. Analysis of request in Modern family-3

3.1. Non variables in the use of request strategy-3

3.1.1. Situation-3

3.1.2. Social distance-4

3.2. Major variables in the use of request strategy-4

3.2.1. Dominance-4

3.2.1.1. Speaker dominant: A>B-4

3.2.1.2. Hearer dominant: A<B-5

3.2.1.3. Status equal: A=B-6

3.2.2. Controllability of acts-7

3.2.2.1. Controllability of act is high-7

3.2.2.2. Controllability of act is low-8

3.2.3. Age-8

3.2.3.1. The older to younger-8

3.2.3.2. The younger to older-9

3.2.3.3. The same age-10

3.2.4. Gender-10

4. Conclusion and implication-11

4.1. Conclusion-11

4.2. Implication-12

References-13