A Contrastive Study of Linguistic Indirectness in English Language and Indirect Speech Acts

Abstract

Indirectness is a common phenomenon of human language and plays an important role in people's speech practice. English euphemism and indirect speech act both study the indirectness of language. In the process of communicating with others, there is a kind of tension and anxiety caused by not understanding or misunderstanding the other party's psychological state, language ability, etc. In this case, we can alleviate this problem in different ways. First, learn to properly use the existing knowledge and experience in your hands; second, read more books and articles to see if the content conforms to objective facts; finally, it is necessary to pay attention not to express your inner thoughts with some obscure words, and try to avoid direct words the occurrence of behavior. This paper compares and analyzes the similarities and differences of language indirection between English euphemism and indirect speech acts, which helps people to use language more accurately and appropriately, and promotes the achievement of ideal communicative effects.