Complaint

Complaints are meant to contrast what is with what ought to be. They belong to "face-threatening acts" (Brown and Levingston 1978) in which we are working against ritual constraints - that is, it is difficult to give face to someone who has acted in a way that begs complaint.. Complaints have patterns that are influenced by the social need to maintain good relationship. Brown and Levingston suggested three kinds of reaction to complaints:

1. decide not to perform the complaint at all.

2. Use "off record" stratergies (hints, vagueness, rhetorical questions).

3. Use bald "on record" strategies (direct, clear statements) to show positive politeness when the listener's positive self-image is of concern, or negative politeness when the speaker's freedom of action and the addressee's negative self-image are central.

Most people avoid complaint situations because it is difficult to complain and still maintain and give face. When we indulge in complaint making, the complaints are usually addressed to those not responsible for the offense - we gripe.

Complaint speech events typically contain an opening that includes an identification of the complainer and an explaination of why s/he is entitled to complain (i.e., a self-justification for the complaint), the complaint act, a possible justification of the addressee's action, an apology, a negotiated remedy, and a closing or bridge to another topic.

Complaints are often presented to service agencies and businesses in written form. Writers of complaint letters spend a lot of time showing how the agency or business is at fault. In face-to-face communication, much less time is spent assigning fault and more time is spent negotiating a remedy.

Oral, Written, and Oral-Written Speech Acts

Prayers, quarrels, special songs belong to oral speech acts.

Written speech acts or inscriptions can be represented by notifications, contracts, etc.

Universal speech acts such as asking, answering, promises can be both oral and written. However, there are various differences between these forms of speech acts in terms of conditions of their performance.

Speech Acts and Events Across Cultures: Universality and Ethnospecificity

Though speech acts are universal phenomena, they have their peculiarities across cultures and even genders. Cultural patterns, customs and ways of life are generally reflected in speech acts and events because communication and culture are mutually interdependent and mutually influential. Much research has been done in comparing cross-cultural and gender differences in speech acts.

Cross - cultural differences in the domain of speech acts are determined by

1. differences among languages and

2. differences among cultures.

Variations cab be interlanguage and intralanguage.

Some cultures - Japanese can serve as an example - possess highly conventionalized speech acts characterized by social differentiation (Акишина, Камогава 1974:12).