Requests in Italian and Brazilian Portuguese: From a Cross-Cultural Study to a Reflection about Interculturality

Abstract

The Research Group “Pragmática (inter)linguística, cross-cultural e intercultural” (CNPq/Fapesp/USP) is conducting a cross-cultural investigation focused on requests and how they are carried out in different languages and cultures, in order to identify similarities and differences and to reflect on how they may interfere in interactions between speakers. Widely studied, the request was chosen for at least two reasons: (a) it is one of the most frequent speech acts; (b) it is strongly influenced by contextual and cultural factors. These factors gain particular relevance when one considers that it is a Face-Threatening Act (BROWN; LEVINSON, 1987), since with a request one seeks to induce the interlocutor to perform an action (SEARLE, 1979) and thus brings into play both the positive face of the one making it and the negative face of the one receiving it. In fact, on the one hand, a rejection can frustrate the need to be acknowledged and approved, and on the other hand, having to react to a request can hinder one’s individual freedom. The data analyzed in this article were collected through one of the instruments used by the group: a Written Discourse Completion Task (WDCT), which contains everyday life situations that induce the realization of a request. Participants are asked to write what they would say if they found themselves in the proposed situations, which were elaborated by taking into account social distance and degree of imposition, two of the contextual variables proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987). The results presented here are based on two samples of 30 Italians and 30 Brazilians. The analysis focuses on the characteristics of head acts and some types of supportive moves (BLUM-KULKA et al., 1989), as well as on how recurrent expressions may be a sign of conventionality in each of the two target languages, considering particularly how the knowledge of these pragmatic features can influence intercultural communication dynamics.