Request
(Redirected from requests)
A Request is a directive speech act that expresses its speaker's wish that the addressee perform an action, without invoking authority over the addressee, so that the addressee may decline it.
- AKA: Request Act.
- Context:
- It can be accepted, deferred or declined by its addressee, whereas a directive order is issued from a position of authority and assigns the action without awaiting acceptance.
- It can have a world-to-word direction of fit, like other directive speech acts: it is satisfied when the addressee's action makes the world match what was asked.
- It can be made directly, as in "Please close the window", or indirectly, as when "It's cold in here" is used to ask for the window to be closed.
- It can be recorded in a document or a tracked item, such as a Change Control Request (CCR) or a Pull Request (PR). The record carries the request but is a separate thing from the act.
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- It can range from being a Direct Request to being an Indirect Request, depending on whether its sentence form states what is being asked.
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- Example(s):
- Work Requests, which ask an agent to perform a task, such as:
- Analysis Requests, which initiate an analysis task.
- "Could you close the window?", an indirect request made with an interrogative sentence.
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- Work Requests, which ask an agent to perform a task, such as:
- Counter-Example(s):
- A Directive Order, a sibling directive speech act issued from a position of authority, which assigns the action without awaiting the addressee's acceptance.
- A piece of advice, a sibling directive speech act, which recommends an action for the addressee's own benefit rather than expressing the speaker's wish.
- A Commissive Speech Act, such as a promise, which commits the speaker, not the addressee, to a future action.
- An HTTP Request Message, which is a data message from a client program to a server program rather than a speech act.
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- See: Speech Act, Imperative Sentence, Question Statement.
References
2020
- Mitchell Green. (2020). Speech Acts. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, substantive revision 2020-09-24. Retrieved 2026-10-15; no archive snapshot confirmed. Supports the authority condition that separates an order from a request, and direction of fit: a command is issued "in her capacity as a person in a position of authority"; "speech acts such as commands have world-to-word direction of fit".
Undated
- Wikipedia. Illocutionary act. Retrieved 2026-10-15; archived snapshot of 2026-10-11. Supports requests as directives, alongside advice: "directives = speech acts that are to cause the hearer to take a particular action, e.g. requests, commands and advice".