indirectives

Indirectives are a linguistic concept referring to utterances that convey a meaning or perform an action other than their literal, surface-level meaning. They are a common feature of human communication, allowing speakers to be polite, subtle, or persuasive. For example, asking "Is it cold in here?" might be an indirective way of requesting that the temperature be raised, rather than a genuine inquiry about the ambient temperature.

The effectiveness of indirectives relies on shared context, cultural norms, and the listener's ability to infer the speaker's intended meaning. They often involve pragmatic inferences, where the listener uses background knowledge and the principles of conversation, such as Grice's Cooperative Principle, to understand the underlying message. Other examples include making a statement that implies a request, such as "I'm so thirsty," which can indirectly mean "Could you please get me something to drink?".

Indirectives are crucial for social interaction, enabling speakers to avoid direct confrontation or to express complex social intentions. They can be used to make requests more palatable, to express criticism softly, or to initiate actions without explicit commands. While efficient, indirectives can sometimes lead to misunderstandings if the shared context or inferential abilities are not aligned between the speaker and the listener. The study of indirectives falls within the domain of pragmatics, a branch of linguistics concerned with language use in context.