INTRODUCTION

This chapter concerns the way German and Norwegian managers express requests in spoken discourse, i.e., ask each other to do things. Requests often come at crucial moments in business talk, and almost invariably lead to decisions and business actions. If, for example, a speaker in this context says please pay in Norwegian crowns and deliver by 1st August, the hearer must decide whether to consent or not. Compliance commits the hearer to a course of action, underlining the professional importance of requests, but making requests also affects the interpersonal relationship between the negotiators. Speakers frequently find it difficult to make requests, especially those which the hearer may find problematic, because the required action is difficult. The hearer may even feel insulted or threatened by a particular request; for example, I must ask you to lower your price by at least thirty per cent, or we shall have to find another supplier. Hence, the process of formulating requests is of crucial importance, affecting both the business relationship and the interpersonal relationship between negotiation partners and their companies.

Languages have developed a variety of ways to express requests. If I want my supplier to send me a dozen spare parts P35 for a machine, I can formulate this request as send a dozen P35 or you must send a dozen P35 or could you please send a dozen P35 or I need a dozen P35 or why don't you send a dozen P35, etc. Obviously, some of these expressions are more appropriate than others for the intended purpose, although they contain similar propositional content. The variance is in their illocutionary force and/or their acceptability in a business context. Hence, some are more likely than others to succeed.

When we speak a foreign language (FL), the danger of choosing the wrong variant or misunderstanding an utterance increases, because cultures and languages have their own particular requesting patterns. Because the making of requests is such a delicate and sensitive matter, these differences may assume extreme importance. An utterance we think we understand literally may have a different illocutionary force, i.e., functional as opposed to propositional meaning, in the FL and therefore be misunderstood.