Children's pragmatic judgements of direct and indirect requests

Twelve request forms were rated along the three dimensions of polite ness, effectiveness and likelihood of use by 216 8- to 12-year-old primary school children. There were positive correlations between the three dimensions regardless of the age of the addressee to whom the request was directed. There was no developmental trend in the ratings, although ratings tended to be higher for politeness and likelihood of use than for effectiveness. A number of request items were rated differentially according to the dimensions. The findings are discussed in relation to how children rate and evaluate politeness in different request forms.