Speech Acts

Overview

Speech acts are utterances that perform an action. Saying “I promise” creates a promise; saying “I apologize” performs an apology. The three languages differ in how directly they perform these acts.

• Spanish: Tends toward directness in close relationships, with elaborate politeness formulas for formal contexts.
• English: Highly indirect for requests and refusals, with extensive use of modals and conditional forms.
• Chinese: Relies heavily on context, particles, and implied meaning. Directness is often preferred over elaborate face-saving strategies.

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Directness scale

Language	Direct	Neutral	Indirect
Spanish	Dame el agua	¿Me das el agua?	¿Podrías darme el agua?
English	Give me the water	Can you give me the water?	Would you mind giving me the water?
Chinese	给gěi我wǒ水shuǐ	给gěi我wǒ水shuǐ好hǎo吗ma？	能néng不bù能néng给gěi我wǒ水shuǐ？

Key insight: Spanish is often more direct than English in informal contexts. Chinese can be extremely direct but also uses implicit communication for sensitive topics.

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Apologies across cultures

Spanish

• Perdón: Mild, everyday (stepping on someone’s foot, interrupting)
• Lo siento: Genuine empathy (someone’s misfortune)
• Disculpe: Formal, getting attention
• Con permiso: Requesting to pass/borrow space

English

• Sorry: All-purpose, from bumping into someone to major offenses
• I’m sorry: More sincere
• I apologize: Formal, official
• My bad: Very casual, young registers

Chinese

• 对duì不bù起qǐ: Standard apology
• 抱bào歉qiàn: Slightly more formal/written
• 不bù好hǎo意yì思sī: Mild, social awkwardness (literally “not good meaning”)
• 打dǎ扰rǎo了le: For interrupting (literally “disturbed”)

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Requests and politeness

English indirectness

English relies on modal verbs and hypothetical forms:

• Could you…?
• Would you mind…?
• I was wondering if you could…
• Would it be possible to…?

Spanish strategies

• Questions with rising intonation: ¿Me lo pasas? (You pass it to me?)
• Conditional: ¿Podrías pasármelo?
• Imperative + por favor: Pásamelo, por favor

Chinese strategies

• 能néng不bù能néng/可kě以yǐ吗ma: Ability-based (Can you…?)
• 麻má烦fán你nǐ: Trouble-based (Trouble you to…)
• 请qǐng: Please (more formal)
• 吧bā: Suggestion particle (来lái吧bā = come [suggestion])

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Gratitude expressions

Level	Spanish	English	Chinese
Minimal	Gracias	Thanks	谢xiè谢xiè
Standard	Muchas gracias	Thank you	谢xiè谢xiè你nǐ
Warm	Te lo agradezco	Thank you so much	非fēi常cháng感gǎn谢xiè
Profound	Mil gracias / Se lo agradezco de corazón	I can’t thank you enough	感gǎn激jī不bù尽jìn / 太tài谢xiè谢xiè了le

Chinese often downplays thanks with 不bù用yòng谢xiè (no need to thank) in response, while English and Spanish typically accept thanks graciously.