Suggestion and Advice in Three Selected Plays

Abstract

Both advice and suggestion are acts used in daily communication. They are ways of influencing other people. They are milder than commands since the decision about what to do is in the hands of the hearer, but in practice they are tactful ways of giving command or instruction, thus, they are regarded as face-threatening acts that need to be softened or mitigated.

Therefore, this paper aims to study the two directive acts, namely suggestion and advice aiming to show the similarities and differences between them and set the strategies used to indicate each act. Besides, the two acts in question will be applied to some texts in three selected plays: "Flowering Cherry", "The Tiger and the Horse" by Robert Bolt and "Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" By Edward Albee to show which strategy is used more frequently to indicate each act in the selected plays.

Keywords: Suggestion, advice, face-threatening act, similarity, difference, felicity conditions, structural realization, strategies, plays, Flowering Cherry, The Tiger and the Horse, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf.