A Study Of English Requests: A Functional Approach

The English request expression is a usual way to communicate with other people. There are various expressions of requests in the English language. They differ in forms and functions. Their forms include imperative clause, interrogative clause and declarative clause. The imperative clause is a direct request, and it is more likely the speaker has a clear and lucid attitude; but the utterance has a sense of imposition. This direct request by imperative clause implies command. The interrogative clause makes a polite request, and it gives the hearer much room to choose. When the declarative clause performs a request; the hearer may take it as a clause which the speaker gives information or demands goods-&-services, and the clause leaves the decision to be made by the hearer. Thus the declarative clause is the most polite request. Functional linguistics acclaims that choice is meaning, and different expressions evolve different meaning. The lexicogrammatical system of language and the grammatical metaphor form the potential meaning together. In actual context, request meaning source consists of different English request expressions. In actual life different English request expressions make up of a potential meaning resource, and they are the congruent form and the metaphor forms with different ranks. Therefore, the English requests in functional approach make an attempt to explore the clear interpretation of grammatical metaphor. And this paper shows the difficulties in understanding the complex linguistic forms of English requests. Grammatical metaphor theory is helpful to give a further explanation on this language phenomenon.This paper falls into five parts.Chapter One gives a brief introduction of the whole paper. The definition of requests is given. And the four functions are introduced in this chapter. That is, to make command, to express the speaker's desire, to enquire on the hearer's ability / willingness and to soften face-threaten acts.Chapter Two is about a literature review of the request. Some basic ideas on the...