A Corpus-Based Investigation of “Would You Like” and “Would You Mind” Request Expressions’ Collocational Patterns in American Spoken English Discourse

Knowledge of speech acts and their functions are basic components of pragmatics and the request speech act plays a crucial part in everyday interactions. This study aimed to investigate whether native speakers of English make any differences utilizing the request expressions “would you like” and “would you mind”, their collocations in both spoken and academic contexts and the functional differences caused by the co-text. To this end, the data was retrieved from Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The results revealed that such expressions in the spoken corpus were used more frequently in the transactional context with equal status and as interactional-oriented. However, in the academic corpus, the same expressions were used more frequently in the pedagogical context with the high-low status and as both interactional-oriented and task-oriented. The expression "would you like" was mostly used to give information, whereas "would you mind" was usually used to request an action. These expressions were not used for the purpose of imposition in any of the two contexts. The study revealed that the collocations didn't affect the function of such requests. In fact, it was the collocating words that changed due to the pragmatic functions and the objectives of the speakers. The findings might contribute to understanding of the variations which matter between the request expressions. Teachers and learners might gain insights into how and when they are used and which collocations are more frequent so as to focus more carefully on them and make informed and proper decisions within pedagogical settings.

Keywords:

collocational patterns , pragmatics competence , pragmatic function , request expressions , speech acts , collocational patterns , pragmatics competence , pragmatic function , request expressions , speech acts