This study investigates the cross-linguistic devices of requests written by native English-speaking (NSE) and native
Cantonese-speaking (NCS) respondents in an academic context on the basis of 197 discourse completion tests. Both groups asked in a
direct sequence accompanied by a different proportion of syntactic and lexical devices to reduce directness. NES used a higher
frequency and a wider range of syntactic downgraders than NCS. NCS, however, used a higher frequency of lexical downgraders and a
greater number of combinations of lexical devices than NES. The cross-linguistic comparison of the linguistic features
of Cantonese and Engish requests demonstrates how the distinctive linguistic properties of each language and social factors
combine to constitute a request. Further investigation could be made between idealized and authentic English and Cantonese
requests for a range of age groups and contexts, or to compare the linguistic forms of requests made by NCS in English with the
linguistic forms of requests made by NES in Cantonese.
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Cited by
Cited by 13 other publications
Chan, Angela, Wei Zhang, Olga Zayts, Mary Hoi Yin Tang & Wai Keung Tam
2013. Chinese requests: In comparison to American and Japanese requests and with reference to the “East-West divide”. Journal of Pragmatics 55 ► pp. 140 ff.
Economidou-Kogetsidis, Maria
2010. Cross-cultural and situational variation in requesting behaviour: Perceptions of social situations and strategic usage of request patterns. Journal of Pragmatics 42:8 ► pp. 2262 ff.
Economidou-Kogetsidis, Maria
2013. Strategies, modification and perspective in native speakers’ requests: A comparison of WDCT and naturally occurring requests. Journal of Pragmatics 53 ► pp. 21 ff.
Holmes, Janet
2012. Politeness in Intercultural Discourse and Communication. In The Handbook of Intercultural Discourse and Communication, ► pp. 205 ff.
Lee, Cynthia
2011. Strategy and linguistic preference of requests by Cantonese learners of English: An interlanguage and crosscultural comparison. Multilingua - Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication 30:1 ► pp. 99 ff.
Lee, Cynthia
2016. Understanding refusal style and pragmatic competence of teenage Cantonese English learners in refusals: An exploratory study. Intercultural Pragmatics 13:2
Li, Li & Wen Ma
2016. Request sequence in Chinese public service calls. Discourse Studies 18:3 ► pp. 269 ff.
2019. Pragmatic development of Chinese during study abroad: A cross-sectional study of learner requests. Journal of Pragmatics 146 ► pp. 137 ff.
Wong, Jock & Congyi Liu
2019. Two Ways of Saying ‘Thank You’ in Hong Kong Cantonese: m-goi vs. do-ze. In Further Advances in Pragmatics and Philosophy: Part 2 Theories and Applications [Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 20], ► pp. 435 ff.
Woodfield, Helen & Maria Economidou-Kogetsidis
2010. ‘I just need more time’: A study of native and non-native students' requests to faculty for an extension. Multilingua - Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication 29:1 ► pp. 77 ff.
Zhu, Wuhan
2017. A cross-cultural pragmatic study of rapport-management strategies in Chinese and English academic upward request emails. Language and Intercultural Communication 17:2 ► pp. 210 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.