A01 cohe4573 01 se fm. Qxd

2
Expressing explicit concern for the listener, e.g.,
Have you been waiting long?
3
Using multiple intensifying strategies, e.g.,
I’m so sorry. Are you all right? I’m terribly sorry.
Curricular materials for L2 apologies can be found at http://www.carla.
umn.edu/speechacts/japanese/apologies/apologies.htm (for Japanese) and
http://www.carla.umn.edu/speechacts/sp_pragmatics/Apologies/apologies_
home.html (for Spanish).
23
21
Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984).
22
Cohen et al. (1986: 66 –7).
23
Both sites accessed on December 10, 2009.

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G R O U N D I N G I N T H E T E A C H I N G A N D L E A R N I N G O F L 2 P R A G M A T I C S
Requests
By making a request, the speaker/writer infringes on the listener’s freedom
from imposition. The recipient may feel that the request is an intrusion on
his/her freedom of action or even a power play. As for the requester, s/he
may hesitate to make requests for fear of exposing a need or out of fear of
possibly making the recipient lose face.
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In this sense, requests are face-
threatening to both the requester and the recipient.
Functions and strategies for making requests
Because requests have the potential to be intrusive and demanding, there
often is a need for the requester to minimize the imposition involved in 
the request.
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One way for the requester to minimize the imposition is by
employing indirect strategies rather than direct ones (see below). The more
direct a request is, the more transparent it is and the less of a burden the
recipient bears in interpreting the request. The scale of directness can be
characterized according to the following three strategies:
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1