How do people understand indirect requests? Our study investigated the elements affecting understanding of Japanese indirect requests. First, we studied 6 fundamental elements identified by Clark(Cognitive Psychology, 1979, 11, 430-477), to see whether they would also be effective in Japanese. Those elements were conventionality of means, conventionality of form, obviousness of an answer to a literal meaning, transparency of an indirect meaning, existence of a marker("…please"), and information about plans and goals of a speaker. Second, we extended the study and added 3 more elements that were important to Japanese indirect requests. They were speaker's and listener's expectation, responses to a literal meaning considered inappropriate to the social context(e.g.a customer and a merchant), and conditions making markers more effective. The method was the same as clark's, asking indirect requests to the local merchants(subjects)on the phone, and analyzing their responses. The merchants did not know those requests were for the experiments. The requests were mainly selected from Clark's, and some were made by us. The measures we used were considered as responses with literal and indirect meanings(q andr); ellipsis made ; listener's repetitions ; obscure predicates of responses. The last measure was our original, considered useful in Japanese because of people often using ambiguous expressions when unsure of conveyed meanings. The results proved that the fundamental elements proposed by Clark were also effective in Japanese ;it also showed that listeners understood the requests using their expectation of what would be requested, and made responses considering the speakers' expectation;that listeners tended to avoid responding to literal meanings being inappropriate to a social context ; and that markers were more effective when put on nonconventional requests, and located just before the verb representing the requested action. The results also suggested that future studies should analyzed ambiguous expressions and various uses of affirmatives proper to Japanese.

How do people understand indirect requests? Our study investigated the elements affecting understanding of Japanese indirect requests. First, we studied 6 fundamental elements identified by Clark(Cognitive Psychology, 1979, 11, 430-477), to see whether they would also be effective in Japanese. Those elements were conventionality of means, conventionality of form, obviousness of an answer to a literal meaning, transparency of an indirect meaning, existence of a marker("…please"), and information about plans and goals of a speaker. Second, we extended the study and added 3 more elements that were important to Japanese indirect requests. They were speaker's and listener's expectation, responses to a literal meaning considered inappropriate to the social context(e.g.a customer and a merchant), and conditions making markers more effective. The method was the same as clark's, asking indirect requests to the local merchants(subjects)on the phone, and analyzing their responses. The merchants did not know those requests were for the experiments. The requests were mainly selected from Clark's, and some were made by us. The measures we used were considered as responses with literal and indirect meanings(q andr); ellipsis made ; listener's repetitions ; obscure predicates of responses. The last measure was our original, considered useful in Japanese because of people often using ambiguous expressions when unsure of conveyed meanings. The results proved that the fundamental elements proposed by Clark were also effective in Japanese ;it also showed that listeners understood the requests using their expectation of what would be requested, and made responses considering the speakers' expectation;that listeners tended to avoid responding to literal meanings being inappropriate to a social context ; and that markers were more effective when put on nonconventional requests, and located just before the verb representing the requested action. The results also suggested that future studies should analyzed ambiguous expressions and various uses of affirmatives proper to Japanese.