한국언어과학회

This study aims to show the communicative effectiveness by using interrogative sentences as an indirect speech act conveying various meanings in the course of daily communication. First, yes-no questions with '不行吗?', '不可以嗎?', '不成吗?', etc. are often used to express politely meanings by lowering the speaker and treating the listener with respect. Second, wh-questions using '为什麽', '怎麽', '什麽', '誰', etc. are used to indirectly and euphemistically express the directive speech acts and the expressive speech acts that tend to threaten the listener's face. By expressing these speech acts indirectly and euphemistically the speaker can reduce not only the threat of the listener's face but also the listener’s stress and psychological burdens, through which the listener accepts the delivered contents. Third, A-not-A questions using ‘能 不能’, ‘好不好’, ‘可不可以’, etc are used to indirectly convey ‘proposal’, ‘request’, ‘protest’, etc. The negative situation is presented in order to show humility by giving the listener a chance for refusal and avoiding the loss of the speaker's face in case the listener refuses.