Speech Acts Bibliography:
Opting Out
Bonikowska, M. P. (1988). The choice of opting out. Applied Linguistics, 9 (2), 169-181.
Argues that pragmatics should expand research interest to include not only the study of how speakers perform speech acts but also instances where the decision not to -- opting out — is a choice. For some research purposes the need for a large corpus and manipulation of contextual factors -- elicited superior data but a shortcoming of elicited instructions is that it forces subjects to perform linguistically in situations in which in real life they might opt out -- e.g., in a highly face-threatening act. In her work on complaints, she allowed for not saying anything in situation. By studying opting out, we can really understand the nature of the act under study -- its conditions, relation to face-threat.