A Study Of Speech Acts Of English Complaints

Speech act theory is an important pragmatic theory. Linguists have made lots of extensive and in-depth studies of "apologies", "requests", "thanks" etc. since 1950s. However, fewer scholars have made that certain studies of complaints, which are characterized as an important aspect of communicative competence to properly use complaints and to appropriately response. This study conducted and analyzed sets of data acquisition scenarios which are based on complaining scenes in American TV play series Prison Break, 24 Hours, etc. Furthermore, this thesis concluded complaining acts, complaining words, expressing methods of speech acts of complaints, situational variables of influencing speech acts of complaints and politeness strategies of speech acts of complaints, etc. This thesis shows us the English-speaking people's behavioral patterns, especially Americans' patterns of behavior. It has great practical significance and historical importance on today's international communications, learning, teaching and researching as foreign language learners.This thesis seeks to break out the limitations of study of complaints. I hope that the thesis has inspired on the in-depth study of complaints.