American English Complaints
Function of Complaints
Americans use complaints:
- to express displeasure, disapproval, annoyance, blame, censure, threats, or reprimand as a reaction to a perceived offense/ violation of social rules (Olshtain & Weinbach, 1985, 1993; Trosborg, 1995)
- to hold the hearer accountable for the offensive action and possibly suggest/request a repair (Olshtain & Weinbach, 1985, 1993)
- to confront a problem with an intention to improve the situation ("a face-threatening activity", Brown & Levinson, 1987)
- to share a specific negative evaluation, obtain agreement, and establish
a common bond between the speaker and addressee"trouble sharing"
(Hatch, 1992), "troubles talk" (Tannen, 1990) ~ (Boxer,
1993a, 1996).
For example:
- "I can't believe I didn't get an A on this paper. I worked so hard!"
- "Same here. She doesn't give away A's very easily, that's for sure."
- to vent anger or anxiety/let off steam (Boxer, 1993a, 1996)
- to open and sustain conversations (Boxer, 1993a, 1996)
Two categories of complaints, direct and indirect complaints, are often investigated separately. While direct complaints are addressed to a complainee who is held responsible for the offensive action (Could you be a little quieter? Im trying to sleep), indirect complaints are given to addressees who are not responsible for the perceived offense (She never cleans up after her. Isnt that horrible?). Indirect complaints often open a conversation and establish solidarity between the speakers.
Above passages from Boxer (1993a).
Direct Complaints
Strategies
Explanation of Purpose / Warning for the Forthcoming Complaint
- I just came by to see if I could talk about my paper.*
- Uh, I got my paper back here and after looking through it...*
- Listen, John, theres something I want to talk to you about. You remember our agreement, dont you?
- Well, look, I might as well start right out.
- Look, I dont want to be horrible about it.
Complaint
- I think maybe the grade was a little too low.*
- I was kind of upset with my grade. I know that a lot of the problems are mine but there are certain areas that I wasnt totally in agreement with what you said.*
- I put a lot of time and effort in this...*
Request for Solution/Repair
- I would appreciate it if you would reconsider my grade.*
- ..so, Id like to maybe set up a time when we can get together and discuss...*
- Would you mind doing your share of the duties?**
- I presume your insurance will cover the damage.**
Request for non-recurrence (The speaker requests that the complainee never perform the offence again or improve the behavior.)
- Well, Id really like to find out about this because Im hoping it wont happen again.**
Characteristics*
Use of pronoun "we"
- to indicate that both parties share the blame
- as a way of negotiating the problem
I know we have a different point of view on this subject.
I hope we could sit down and discuss the paper
Use of questioning
- to ask for advice, for permission to explain oneself
- to get the listener to recondsider or discuss the problem
Do you have a minute so that we could go over the paper together?
Depersonalization of the problem
- to transfer blame from the interlocutor to the problem
I feel this grade may reflect a difference of opinion.
Use of mitigators ("downgraders")
- to soften the complaint (e.g., kind of, perhaps, possibly, a little
bit, a second, somehow, I suppose, Im afraid, you know, I mean,
right, dont you think?)
I think uh its just in my opinion maybe the grade was a little low.
Maybe you know something about this dent on my car.**
Im a bit annoyed that...**
Are you somehow involved in this affair?**
Use of "upgraders"**
- to increase the impact of the complaint (e.g., such, quite, terrible,
really, frightfully, absolutely, Im sure, Im positive, its
obvious)
What a frightful mess youve made, Im absolutely shocked.
Im certain that this dent wasnt there when I last drove my car. - Acceptance of partial responsibilities for the problem
and uh, perhaps it wasnt quite as polished as both of us would have liked, but the content was there, and I think I deserve a better grade.
Severity Scale**
1) Least Severe:
The speaker avoids actually mentioning the offensive event.
- Dont worry about it, theres no real damage.
The kitchen was clean and orderly when I left it last.**
There was nothing wrong with my car yesterday.
2) Somewhat Severe:
Neither the offense nor the complainee is explicitly mentioned but general annoyance at the violation is expressed:
Look at these things all over the place.**
This is really unacceptable behavior.
Theres a horrible dent in my car.**
3) Fairly Severe:
4) Severe:The speaker threatens the complainees face by making a direct complaint but does not say there will be any other consequences:
- Youre inconsiderate!***
You should not postpone this type of operation.***
The speaker explicitly accuses the complainee of the offense directly and hints that there may be consequences for the offender:
Look at this mess! Havent you done any cleaning up for the last week?**
You borrowed my car last night, didnt you?**
Next time Ill let you wait for hours.***
5) Very Severe:
The speaker immediately theatens the complainee by attacking him/her:
- Youd better pay the money right now.***
Im not going to budge an inch until you change my appointment.***
Now, give me back what you have stolen or I'll call the police.***
Above passages from
*
Murphy
& Neu (1996), pp. 199-204
**Trosborg
(1995), pp. 315-329
***Olshtain
& Weinbach (1985), pp. 200-201.
Indirect Complaints
Indirect complaints usually begin with an introductory expression like one of the following:
|
|
Indirect complaints tend to center on three themes:
- Self (Oh, Im so stupid.)
- Other (John is the worst manager.)
- Situation (I feel, in a way, boxed in, you know?/Why did they have to raise tuition?)
Above passages from Boxer (1993a), pp.30-31.
[ Research notes on the section above... ]
Responses to Indirect Complaints
Responses to indirect complaints can vary, but they typically follow one of the patterns below:
Commiseration showing agreement or reassurance in an attempt to make the speaker feel better.*
A: Im getting more and more lost.
B: So am I.
A: And yesterday he went over the homework, which is fine, but it didnt prepare us at all for this week.
B: No. Hes just not a good teacher.No response, or a switching of the topic (Notice that in this dialogue, minimal response to the complaint or topic switch terminates the complaint.)*
A: It takes a day and a half to get anywhere cause you spend six hours on an airplane.
B: So you stayed at X hotel. We liked that place.
A: Yeah, it was great. There was a big pool for the kids.Question simple clarification requests, elaboration requests, or challenge questions expressing doubts about the validity of the complaints*
A: His talk was so weak that I wonder how it got accepted for the conference..
B: Oh, really? I think he had a lot of useful things to say.Contradiction not accepting or approving of the complaint by contradicting the speaker or providing some kind of defense for the object being complained about.
A: You don't even do your own writing.
B: Yes I do!Joke/teasing*
A: Wow- I just opened this bag of chips and before I'd eaten even one, they were half gone!
B: You sure pay a lot for a bag half full of air!
A: Yeah, they should come in a smaller bag. I feel ripped off.
B: Let's write a letter to the chip master!Advice/lecture offering advice on solving a problem in retrospect.*
A: An annoying thing happened to me. I took my bike in to be repaired- to align the spokes. They did a lousy job. Now I have to find the receipt and take it back.
B: You should have just bought a new wheel and not bothered to fix it.
[ Research notes on the section above... ]
Above passages from *Boxer (1993a), pp. 39,44,46.
References
Boxer, D. (1993a). Complaining and commiserating: A speech act view of solidarity in spoken American English. NY: Peter Lang.
Boxer, D. (1996). Ethnographic interviewing as a research tool in speech act analysis: The case of complaints. In S. M. Gass & J. Neu (Eds.),ÊSpeech acts across cultures: Challenges to communication in a second languageÊ(pp. 217-239). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Murphy, B. &. Neu, J. (1996). My grade's too low: The speech act set of complaining. In S. M. Gass & J. Neu (Eds.), Speech acts across cultures: Challenges to communication in second language (pp. 191-216). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyer.
Olshtain, E. & Weinbach, L. (1993). Interlanguage Features of the Speech Act of Complaining. In G. Kasper & S. Blum-Kulka (Eds.), Interlanguage Pragmatics (pp. 108-122). New York, Oxford : Oxford University Press.
Olshtain, E. & Weinbach, L. (1985). Complaints : A study of speech act behavior among native and nonnative speakers of Hebrew. In J. Verschueren & M. Bertuccelli-Papi (Eds.), The Pragmatic Perspective : Selected Papers from the 1985 International Pragmatics Conference (pp, 195-208). Amsterdam/Philadelphia : John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Trosborg, A. (1995). Interlanguage Pragmatics: Requests, Complaints and Apologies. Berlin, New York: Mouton Gruyter.
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