External mitigation: Supportive moves in Japanese requests

Abstract

This article investigated supportive moves in Japanese requests, exploring the frequency and the kinds of supportive moves in relation to power difference between a speaker (S) and a hearer (H), distance between S and H, degree of imposition of the requested act, and (in)directness of head acts. The data were 969 e-mail requests by Japanese university students. The results showed that supportive moves were frequently used (1) when there was a power difference between S and H, (2) when there was a distance between S and H, and (3) when degree of imposition was high, and that grounders were frequently used overall. The results also showed that supportive moves were less frequently used when direct requests were used than when indirect requests were employed.