Kansas State University

Unit 4: Head Acts

Unit 4 explicitly teaches students three main types of strategies used to realize head acts in Chinese requests and provides students with a variety of examples to help them identify and choose different request strategies in Chinese.

4.1  Goal of Unit 4

The goal of Unit 4 is to familiarize students with the head acts in Chinese requests and the three types of request strategies that can be used to realize the head acts in Chinese. After studying this unit, students are expected to be able to distinguish between direct and indirect request strategies in Chinese as well as the sub-strategies introduced in this unit.

4.2 What is a Head Act?

The head act is the core part of a request sequence which realizes a request independently of other elements (Blum-Kulka et al., 1989). In the following example,

        你好，打扰一下，我能借你的报纸看看吗？(Hi, excuse me, can I borrow your newspaper to read?)

你好 and 打扰一下 are both alerters (see Unit 3), while 我能借你的报纸看看吗 is the head act that realizes the request.

The head act can be in forms of different request strategies. A request strategy is a linguistic expression or utterance that realizes a request. According to Blum-Kulka et al. (1989), three major levels of request strategies have been identified: a) direct, b) conventionally indirect, and c) hint.

Direct strategies are expressions marked explicitly as requests, which can be recognized directly from the sentence structure such as imperatives or which includes requesting verb phrases, as shown in the following examples in English and Chinese:

Conventional indirect strategies are utterances that indirectly convey the function of request making through means such as interrogatives. It has been claimed that utterances that question willingness, ability or possibility are commonly used under this category, as shown in the following examples in English and Chinese.

Hints, sometimes referred to as unconventionally indirect strategies, are utterances that makes partial or no reference to the function of request making but need to be interpretable as requests according to specific contexts. Sometimes the hearer should make efforts to understand the speaker’s intention of making a request. For example,

You have left the kitchen in a mess. (The speaker intends to request the hearer to clean the kitchen)

Thinking: Can you think of other hints (or unconventionally indirect strategies) that you have heard or used in Chinese and American English requests?

To learn more about the Chinese words and expressions in this section, please refer to the Glossary below. 

4.3  Direct Strategies in Chinese Requests

Like the direct strategies in English requests, there are a variety of sub-strategies under this category in Chinese. This section gives an introduction to two types of direct strategies that have been used commonly in Chinese requests.

The first type of direct strategies is often structured as imperatives. Previous research findings have found that English speakers tend not to use this strategy, whereas it is considered to be an appropriate and effective request strategy in Chinese, and enjoys high-frequency usage among Chinese speakers (e.g., Miao, 2012; Wang, 2012; Zhang & Wang, 1997). For example,

• 帮我们照张相。 Bāng wǒmen zhàozhāngxiàng.  Help take a picture of us.
• 你等我一下。Nǐ  děng  wǒ  yíxià. Wait (for me) a second.

When using imperatives to make requests in Chinese, speakers usually use words such as帮 (bāng, help), 借 (jiè, lend), 给/让 (gěi/ràng, let) or structures as the Ba sentence. For example,

• 借我100块钱吧。Jiè wǒ yìbǎi  kuài  qián  ba. Lend me RMB 100.
• 帮我打扫一下房间。Bāng wǒ dǎsǎo yíxià fángjiān. Help me clean my room.
• 给/让我看一下你的学生证。Gěi/ràng wǒ kàn yíxià nǐ de xuésheng zhèng. Let me have a look at your student ID.
• 你的护照给我看一下。Nǐ de hùzhào gěi wǒ kàn yíxià. Let me have a look at your passport
• 把这个杯子放在桌子上。Bǎ zhègè bēizi fāng zài zhuōzi shang. Put the cup on the desk.

The second type of direct strategies are characterized by certain verbs that indicate the force of request making, such as 想(xiǎng, want)，需要(xūyào, need)，希望(xīwàng, hope). For example,

• 我想请你帮个忙。Wǒ xiǎng  qǐng  nǐ  bāngge máng.   I want to ask you for a favor.
• 我需要一些钱。Wǒ xūyào yìxiē  qián.   I need some money.
• 我希望大家明天都能来。Wǒ  xīwàng  dàjiā   míngtiān   dōu  néng  lái.  I hope everyone can come tomorrow.

Thinking: What direct request strategies are commonly used in American English? Is there any difference between the use of direct request strategies in American English and in Chinese?

4.4  Conventionally Indirect Strategies in Chinese Requests

Conventionally indirect strategies in both Chinese and English are often structured as interrogatives. In English, conventionally indirect requests are usually stated with the modal verbs like “will/would," “can/could," or “may," and the requests are realized by questioning the speaker’s ability, willingness or possibility. For example,

• Can you clean up the house?
• Could you clean up the house?
• Would you mind cleaning up the house?

Similar to the conventionally indirect strategies used in English, some indirect requests in Chinese are also realized by interrogatives stated by 能 (néng, can) and 可以 (kěyǐ, may), and corresponding interrogative structures like 能/可以……吗 or 能不能……? and 可不可以……?, as shown in examples below.

• 你能明天把书给我吗？Nǐ néng míngtiān bǎ shū gěi wǒ ma?  
• 你能不能明天把书给我？Nǐ néng bù  néng míngtiān bǎ shū gěi wǒ ?

           Can you give the book to me tomorrow?

• 我可以明天去你家吗？Wǒ kěyǐ míngtiān qù nǐ jiā ma ?
• 我可不可以明天去你家？Wǒ kě bù kěyǐ míngtiān qù nǐ jiā?

            May I go to your house tomorrow?

In addition to this type of interrogatives that inquire about the hearer’s ability or permission, another type of questions ended with words like “……可以吗 (kěyǐma, ok/alright)," “……好吗 (hǎoma, ok/alright)," “……行吗 (xíngma, ok/alright)," “……怎么样 (zěnmeyàng, ok/alright)” are often used to make requests in Chinese. For example,

• 帮我打扫一下房间，可以吗？Bāng wǒ dǎsǎo yíxia fángjiān, kěyǐma? Help me clean my room, ok/alright?
• 我们去游泳，怎么样？wǒmen qù yóuyǒng, zěnmeyàng? Let’s go swimming, ok/alright?
• 借我100块钱，行吗？Jiè wǒ yìbǎi  kuài  qián, xíngma? Lend me RMB 100, ok/alright?
• 让我看一下你的照片，好吗？ Ràng wǒ kàn yíxià nǐ de zhàopiàn, hǎoma? Let me have a look at your photo, ok/alright?

Thinking: What conventionally indirect strategies are commonly used to make requests in American English? Any differences between these two languages (American English vs. Chinese)?

Review

To review the ideas in this section, click on Review.