Orientadora: Profa. Dra. Gabriela Spanghero Lotta / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Políticas Públicas, São Bernardo do Campo, 2018. / O trabalhador de linha de frente é descrito na literatura como o conjunto de atores diretamente responsáveis pelas atividades essenciais dos órgãos públicos, ocupando dessa forma uma posição de interface entre o Estado e o cidadão, o que os coloca como um ator com grande influência. Ele determina o acesso dos cidadãos a direitos e benefícios governamentais, sendo por meio da sua atuação na implementação das políticas públicas que a população consegue (ou não) acessar os serviços públicos. O presente trabalho analisa a atuação dos técnicos de referência na medida socioeducativa de liberdade assistida no Município de São Paulo. Por meio da análise da literatura de implementação e da ação dos trabalhadores de linha de frente, buscamos compreender quais os fatores que influenciam a improvisação pragmática (adaptação entre as regras e as circunstâncias na implementação) e do uso da agência (habilidade de formar julgamentos) na atuação dos técnicos de referência. Para tal, entrevistamos quatorze técnicos de referência de duas Organizações Sociais. Concluímos com a análise, que a relação estabelecida entre o técnico de referência e os adolescentes atendidos é feita por meio de interações entre as identidades e as posições sociais que cada um desses atores estabelecem ao longo do processo socioeducativo. Essas interações são resultados da convergência de dois ou mais fatores analisados (fator individual/pessoal, fator organizacional, fator profissional, fator sistema, fator julgamento e fator merecimento), influenciando dessa forma a improvisação pragmática e o uso da agência na sua atuação. / The frontline worker is described in the literature as the set of actors directly responsible for the essential activities of public agencies, thus occupying a position of interface between the State and the citizen, which places them as an actor with great influence. It determines citizens' access to governmental rights and benefits, and through their actions in the implementation of public policies, the population is able (or not) to access public services. The present study analyzes the performance of reference technicians in the socioeducative measure of assisted freedom in the city of São Paulo. Through the analysis of the implementation literature and the action of front-line workers, we seek to understand which factors influence pragmatic improvisation (adaptation between rules and circumstances in implementation) and agency use (ability to form judgments) in the performance of reference technicians. To this end, we interviewed fourteen reference technicians from two Social Organizations. We conclude with the analysis that the relationship established between the reference technician and the adolescents served is made through interactions between the identities and social positions that each of these actors establish throughout the socio-educational process. These interactions are the result of the convergence of two or more analyzed factors (personal factor, organizational factor, professional factor, system factor, judgment factor and merit factor), thus influencing pragmatic improvisation and the use of the agency in its performance.

La traduction pragmatique n’est pas le domaine réservé des traducteurs travaillant dans les secteurs économiques en dehors de l’édition. De nombreux traducteurs d’édition sont aussi des traducteurs pragmatiques. Dans ce domaine, leur spécialisation ne se confond pas avec le domaine dans lequel ils travaillent. Leur métier est méconnu et il n’existe aucune formation pour préparer les aspirants traducteurs à cette spécialisation. Cette recherche s’efforce de combler cette lacune. Elle commence par décrire les ouvrages pragmatiques afin de montrer que dans ce secteur, la réflexion traductive porte sur le texte dans sa mise en page. L’unité de traduction s’hybride, puisqu’elle est composée de rubriques textuelles aux fonctions communicatives précises et d’éléments visuels. Il s’ensuit que la réflexion traductive demande une approche multisémiotique qui s’appuie sur une connaissance approfondie du livre pris comme un espace signifiant dont le texte n’est qu’une composante parmi d’autres. La connaissance du livre est au cœur de la spécialisation des traducteurs pragmatiques actifs dans l’édition. Le milieu de l’édition attend des auteurs et traducteurs un travail de rédacteurs. Les tapuscrits fournis sont relus et corrigés, voire partiellement réécrits pour les améliorer, par les correcteurs. Il n’y a plus un auteur mais une fonction auteur qui réunit les différents intervenants de la chaîne du livre. L’apprentissage du métier doit donc comporter une part de socialisation seconde, intégrée aux exercices de traduction proposés, pour préparer les aspirants traducteurs à s’insérer dans cette équipe. Tout en se perfectionnant en traduction, les jeunes traducteurs doivent se muer en collaborateurs fiables capables de prendre part au processus de fabrication du livre en agissant en tant que médiateur culturel. Leur action s’exprime principalement par l‘écriture de la traduction mais aussi par leurs commentaires sur la fabrication du livre. / Pragmatic translation is thought as the area of specialized translators working for clients outside of the publishing industry, which is deemed to contract literary translators. This is true to some extend. However a large sector of the publishing industry is not concerned with literature but with pragmatic books dealing with all sorts of topics. Many pragmatic translators working for the publishing industry are in fact specialized in translating pragmatic books, not texts. They have to understand the way pragmatic books, made of visual and linguistic messages, convey information to their readers to translate them. This aspect of translation is little known and, outside the study of translation for advertising, research investigating the interaction of texts and iconography is scarce. There is even less on translator training. This thesis endeavours to contribute the observations of a professional translator turned translator trainer. It begins by describing the layout of pragmatic books and showing how the translator must take in the text and the iconography to make sense of the message. The double page is a visual unit splitting the information between text and images. As a result, a translation unit is a mix of texts and images. It follows that translators have to approach the translation of books as a multisemiotic activity. Therefore, when translating pragmatic books, translators have to consider them as signifying space in which textual units are no longer the only source of information. The core of the specialisation of pragmatic translators working in the publishing industry is a profound understanding of how books communicate meaning. Publishers expect both authors and translators to be able to write following style specifications for a given book series. Tapuscrits are proofread and sometimes partially rewritten to be put in agreement with the social communicative norms. At the end of the process leading to the publication of a book, the published text is a collective product and no longer the text originally provided by its “author”. To translate in this context, trainees must learn how to work in a team, albeit working from home. Translation training, at this point, aims at turning students into independent professional able to rewrite and adapt texts, taking into account the visual around, to accommodate readers’ expectations as defined by publishers. As they strive to improve their translation techniques, soon to be translators also need to learn to become cultural mediator and to criticize the books they are translating so as to improve them if need be. Invisible to readers, their contribution to the making of a book, appears in the writing of the translation and in comments on the book itself; and it is very visible to publishers they work for.

The Chinese euphemisms have aroused much interest of many researches due to its distinctive function and diversity. The choice and use of Chinese euphemisms are affected by many factors such as the Chinese traditional culture, social customs, people’s self-cultivation, the situation context and linguistic context of a conversation, etc. Hence, the progress of society, the development of technology and the renewing of the concept make up the dynamic characteristic of the Chinese euphemisms. However, most studies focus mainly on the vocabulary people use and their expressing habits and patterns, there are few studies focus on how Chinese euphemisms develop along with the times. Studies that shed light on how modern people use broad euphemisms and narrow euphemisms are even less. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to collect linguistic materials and design a questionnaire to make a survey on the current situation of using euphemisms by respondents of different age groups. The result of this survey shows that modern people are not only becoming less and less indirect in terms of the scope of using euphemisms, but also less and less tactful in terms of the vocabulary that they use. This phenomenon can be observed when people talk about topics such as death, disease, appearance, unemployment, marriage and privacy. Modern people tend to be relatively low decoratively worded. In other words, people are to some extent becoming less indirect and less tactful. This paper verifies the adaptability as well as the updating and upgrading of Chinese euphemisms. It also discusses the linguistic diversity of modern people in terms of using broad and narrow euphemisms under different contexts. This paper will not only help us to understand how Chinese language adapts to the change with the times, but also digs deeper into the great role that social culture plays in language development. / 汉语委婉语的功能鲜明、灵活多变，引起了很多研究的兴趣。汉语委婉语的选择和使用 受到中国的传统文化、社会风俗，人自身的修养内涵、情景和语境等多方面因素的影响，并伴 随着社会的发展、科技的进步、观念的转变而处于一个动态的变化过程。然而，目前的研究对 委婉语的词汇、表达方式及表达规律探讨的比较多，但是对汉语委婉语基于时代变化的研究则 较少，特别是对于在现代社会的日常交谈中，人们具体如何使用狭义和广义委婉语，以及探讨 他们在委婉语使用方面出现了哪些变化的研究则更少了。 因此，本论文旨在搜集语言素材并设计问卷，对不同年龄段的人委婉语的使用现状做一 个问卷调查。调查数据的结果表明，在现代社会的日常交谈中，不同年龄段的人使用汉语委婉 语的范围不仅缩小了，并且委婉程度也有一定的降低。具体体现为在死、病、相貌、 失业、 婚姻、隐私等话题下，人们现在倾向于使用修饰性较低，或者说委婉程度较低的委婉语。 本论文验证了委婉语的顺应性和更新替代性，并具体阐述了在现代社会的日常交谈中， 不同年龄段的人在不同语境下对广义和狭义委婉语选择的多样性。因此，本论文不仅有助于理 解汉语随时代变迁发展变化的趋势，也有助于更深入的理解社会文化在语言发展中发挥的巨大 作用。

El siguiente trabajo pretende analizar el nivel de desarrollo de la competencia pragmática en usuarios nativos y no-nativos del español con origen chileno y sueco respectivamente. Se han analizado una serie de conversaciones telefónicas endolingües y exolingües y se han comparado en términos de longitud y en organización de sus secuencias de negociación. Por otro lado, también se ha observado en detalle la cantidad y tipología de marcadores lingüísticos de mitigación utilizados en ambos grupos. A partir de dicho análisis conversacional comparativo se pretendió determinar en qué medida un usuario no nativo de nivel avanzado en español inmerso en una cultura hispanohablante ha logrado dominar la segunda lengua en términos del dominio del discurso y el uso funcional de los recursos lingüísticos de acuerdo a un cierto escenario de intercambio comunicativo. Como resultado se han observado diferencias entre los usuarios nativos y no-nativos en relación con la producción de marcadores de mitigación pero no en la longitud y organización secuencial de las conversaciones. / The following paper aims at analyzing the level of development of pragmatic competence among native and nonnative Spanish speakers from Chile and Sweden. A series of endolinguistic and exolinguistic phone conversations have been analyzed and compared with regard to their length and the organization of negotiation sequences. Also, the amount and types of linguistic mitigation markers used in both groups have been accounted for. The overall aim of this comparative study in conversation analysis is to determine in which way nonnative advanced Spanish L2 speakers immersed in a Hispanic culture have been able to master the second language in terms of discourse command and functional use of linguistic resources in a given communicative activity type. Differences were found between native and nonnative speakers with regard to mitigation markers production but not in the length and organization sequence of the conversations.

L’accent en français est un phénomène largement étudié, mais qui ne cesse de donner lieu à des hypothèses multiples, et dont la présence en français contemporain est même mise en question par de nombreux chercheurs. Ainsi subsiste-t-il dans ce domaine un important champ de travail scientifique, permettant d’élaborer et d’appliquer de nouvelles méthodes pour l'examen des données relevant de cette problématique avec l'objectif d’en tirer des conclusions novatrices. L'objectif est donc ici d'abord de bien délimiter le champ de travail, mais aussi en même temps d'étudier ce phénomène en corrélation ou en opposition avec l'ensemble de son contexte, c'est-à-dire ce qui est indissociable de l'accent aux niveaux aussi bien linguistique, physique, psychologique, culturel, social, pragmatique et cognitif – ce choix faisant l'originalité de la présente recherche. / This PhD thesis is dedicated to stress in French.At the onset of our research work, we made the hypothesis that stress in French had a multi-dimensional nature, and were tied in with psychological, social, cultural, physiological, pragmatic, cognitive and linguistic factors. This hypothesis was challenged and validated after studying the corpus which we had pieced together.The scientific aim of this work was to seek new approaches and methods, and use them in the study of stress in the French language with correlation to or in opposition with its context.40 individuals representative by their physiological, social, cultural, linguistic, and psychological features took 5 different tests, which brought to light their speech patterns in various discursive situations. As anticipated by the initial hypothesis, the following came out of the study:4. there is a correlation between an individual’s psychological profile and the stress;5. there is a correlation between an individual’s social and economic background and the stress;6. there is a correlation between an individual’s linguistic background and the stress.The new discovery which came out of our studies shows a correlation between the individual’s psychological profile and the substance of the stress that he produces. It opens up new scientific field which wasn’t exploited before now and enables us to define an individual’s psychological profile based on his/her employed stress nature, as well as to define a stress substance using the individual’s psychological profile.The results obtained as part of our scientific research open up new possibilities in linguistics, pragmatic, psycholinguistic, and sociolinguistic.

In order to convince, one must know which arguments are most suitable for the specific situation. But even if you think you know how others will react to your arguments, you may be wrong. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to find out a way of examining to what extent informative text take account to the subjective views of their addressees. The theoretical framework is Blitzer's theory of the rhetorical situation, pragmatic theory of speech acts and their presuppositions, Burk´s theory of consubstantiality and phenomenographic theory of subjective perceptions. Methodologically, phenomenography has also been used as a guideline for selecting informants, collecting data and processing the interviews. The material analyzed consists interviews with four persons suffering from psoriasis, a brochure addressed to an unspecified audience with the same problem plus an interview with a spokesperson for the Swedish Psoriasis Association. The analysis reveals a clear difference in certain important respects between the subjective views of the intended reader and the implied addressees of the text, i.e. a lack of consubstantiality between sender and receiver. This points to a rhetorical problem when addressing an unknown audience without exploring their specific perceptions of concepts related to the transmitted information, a problem which may be grasped and perhaps to some extent even solved by applying a method similar to the one used in this study.

Up to now, adolescent speakers have been the primary focus when researching contemporary variation in the language of Sweden’s urban areas. This study contributes to the growing body of research on the topic by examining and reporting on adult speakers of what is here referred to as förortssvenska (English: Suburban Swedish). This study focuses specifically on formal speech registers of eight young working-class men from Stockholm along with the perception and reception of their speech by two independent native-listener groups. The paper is the first to present quantifiable data on what has been previously referred to as a “staccato” rhythm in Suburban Swedish. Strong correlations are shown between prosodic rhythm as measured by the normalized pairwise variability index (nPVI) and speech speed to mean listener attitudes (R2=0.9). A strong correlation is also shown for nPVI’s influence on mean listener-projected ethnicity (R2=0.8). Alongside variation in rhythm, we also see phonemic variation that trends toward specific indexes of social identity as revealed by speaker interviews and native-listener assessments. Alongside linguistic variation among speakers, there is also significant variation within speaker peer groups. In addition to identifying specific linguistic features, the study examines social mechanisms revealed in interviews with and qualitative observations of speaker and listener participants. In exploratory fashion, ideas on variation, register ranges, meta-pragmatic stereotyping, and ethnic boundary-making are presented to make a case for treating contemporary urban variation in Swedish as a habitual semiotic extension of speaker identity. Indicators that contemporary urban variation in Swedish may be heading in the direction of sociolectal entrenchment are also discussed. / Hittills har unga talare varit det primära fokus för forskning av aktuell språklig variation i urbana Sverige. Denna studie bidrar till den växande mängden forskning i detta ämne genom att undersöka och rapportera om vuxna talare av det som här kallas för förortssvenska. Studien fokuserar specifikt på formella talregister bland åtta unga män från Stockholms arbetarklass, samt perception och mottagande av deras tal av två oberoende grupper av infödda lyssnare. Denna studie är den första som presenterar kvantifierbar data rörande den i tidigare forskning så kallade stackato-rytmen i förortssvenska. Starka korrelationer finns mellan, å ena sidan, prosodisk rytm mätt med the normalized pairwise variability index (nPVI) och talhastighet och, å den andra, de genomsnittliga lyssnarattityderna (R2=0,9). Det finns också en stark korrelation för nPVIs påverkan på genomsnittlig lyssnarprojicerad etnicitet (R2=0,8). Vid sidan av variation i rytm ser vi också fonemisk variation som trender mot specifika index för social identitet. Och vid sidan av variation i rytm bland talarna, finns också en stor variation inom kamratgrupperna. Förutom att den identifierar specifika lingvistiska drag, undersöker studien sociala mekanismer som framkommer i intervjuer med och kvalitativa observationer av talardeltagarna och lyssnardeltagarna. På ett explorativt sätt, lägger studien fram idéer om variation, registeromfång, meta-pragmatiska stereotyper och etniska gränsskapande för att framhäva argumentet för att behandla den aktuella förortsvariationen i svenska som en habituell avsiktlig utbyggnad av talarens identitet. Det diskuteras också indikatorer till att den aktuella urbana variationen i svenska kan vara på väg mot sociolektal stabilisering.

本論文研究以｢間接抱怨的反應｣的語言行為為研究方向；一方面以跨文化語用學的探討為主，研究母語為中文的台灣人與母語為美語的美國人語言行為之差異，藉以探討該語言行為的文化普遍性、獨特性；另一方面是以外語語用學的探討為主，研究台灣大專生學習美語的外語行為是否接近母語為英語的美國人，以深究研究對象的語用轉移現象。研究的四組受試人分別為36位以英語為母語的美國大學生、36位以中文為母語且以中文為學習主要媒介的台灣的大學生、36位英語學習程度較佳的台灣大學生、36位英語學習程度中等的台灣大學生。蒐集語言資料的工具是語言言談情境問卷(Discourse Completion Task，簡稱DCT)，依照蒐集到的語料進行量化、質化的資料分析。研究結果顯示：四組研究對象皆傾向以憐憫策略來回應間接抱怨。然而以兩項研究變項(性別與社交關係)來進一步討論時，研究結果呈現不同的策略使用：以中文為母語和英語學習程度較佳的台灣大學生這兩個研究對象趨於以沉默或是轉移話題來回應女性陌生人的間接抱怨，但是英語學習程度較中等的台灣大學生，卻是較常使用建議策略來回覆陌生人。再者，探究研究對象們的語用標記時，英語學習者常轉化中文的發語詞於英語表達中，相較於以英語為母語的美國大學生，他們的語用句型也較為簡化。根據研究結果與探討，英語學習者們的英語學習程度高低並不與其語用表現成正比，這論述可以呼應語用知識是有別於語言知識的概念。故在英語為外語教學上，除了英語能力的提升外，學習者應能有機會體驗不同情境下的語用表現，自覺性的討論出該表現背後的不同文化意涵，進而提升其對母語文化以及目標語文化所該具有的知識與內涵。 / This study investigated response strategies to indirect complaints (IC). On the one hand, it explored the cross-cultural differences in speech behaviors between native Mandarin Chinese speakers and native American English speakers. On the other hand, it examined EFL learners’ IC response behaviors in Taiwan. Four participant groups were invited in this study: 36 native speakers of American English living in the United States, 36 native Mandarin Chinese speakers living in Taiwan, 36 EFL learners with high English proficiency level, and 36 EFL learners with intermediate English proficiency level. Their language data were collected through designed Discourse Completion Test (DCT). Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to deal with the collected data. The research results indicated that the commiseration strategy was mostly used by all four participant groups. Yet, taking the two independent variables (gender and social-distance relationships) into consideration, informative results were found across different groups. The two groups of native Chinese speakers and EFL learners with high English proficiency level applied off strategy to their female strangers’ indirect complaints. On the contrary, the group of EFL learners with intermediate English proficiency level used more advice strategy to their strangers’ indirect complaints. Furthermore, negative transfer was found in the EFL learners’ linguistic realization to achieve illocutionary forces, including pragmatic markers and simplified sentential expressions. The research findings implied that there was not any positive relationship between language learners’ linguistic abilities and their pragmatic performance. The implicature is correlated with the concept that pragmatic knowledge is distinct from linguistic knowledge. Thus, in EFL courses, language learners should be provided opportunities to consciously explore different cultural meanings behind speech act behaviors.

Cette thèse explore dans quelle mesure la comptabilité peut jouer un rôle dans le dévoilement et la remise en cause publics d’une situation de domination, et ainsi contribuer à une certaine forme d’émancipation. Au plus près des interprétations des acteurs, cette thèse suit les voix libérales dévoilant et remettant en cause la domination des discours et des principes de rationalisation et de régulation financières à l’œuvre dans le football professionnel français. La comptabilité du football français est particulièrement exposée, du fait de la médiatisation et de la financiarisation intenses de ce secteur. Cette thèse s’appuie sur la sociologie pragmatique de la critique (à travers les travaux de Luc Boltanski) et considère les acteurs comme capables de critiques et de dévoilements. Au sein de trois essais, nous montrons 1/ comment des chiffres comptables préalablement divulgués par les clubs peuvent être mis en scène, par des acteurs débattant au sein d’une émission de radio, pour promouvoir une vision libérale ou une vision régulée du football français, 2/ comment les contrôleurs de gestion d’un club se saisissent de la critique pour dévoiler et remettre en cause la domination institutionnelle du régulateur financier du football français, et 3/ comment les pratiques d’accountability de managers d’un club, en réponse à la critique publique, leur permettent de légitimer leur organisation en justifiant sa non-conformité. Si la comptabilité, dans le sillage de la sociologie critique, a souvent été décrite comme un outil au service de dominations à l’œuvre, nous montrons dans cette thèse qu’elle peut également favoriser dévoilement et émancipation. / This dissertation explores to what extent accounting can play a role in how actors publicly unveil and denounce a situation of domination, thereby contributing to a form of emancipation. Listening to the actors’ interpretations, this dissertation follows the liberal voices which unveil and denounce the domination of the discourses and principles on financial regulation and rationalization for French professional football. French football accounting is particularly exposed, due to the high media coverage and financialization of the sector. This dissertation builds on the “pragmatic sociology of critique” (through the work of Luc Boltanski), and sees actors as having critical and unveiling competences. In three essays, we show 1/ how clubs’ disclosed accounting numbers can be staged by actors debating in a radio talk-show, to promote a liberal or regulated vision of French football, 2/ how management accountants in a club use their critical competences to unveil and denounce the institutional domination of the French football financial regulatory body, and 3/ how accountability practices of club’s managers undertaken to respond to public criticism, enable them to legitimize their organization by justifying its non-conformity. While accounting has often been described as serving dominant interests following the “critical sociology” tradition, our dissertation shows that accounting can also favor unveiling and emancipation.

本篇論文目的在探討兒童在同儕對話中所使用的請求言語行為，研究問題如下：1.在同儕對話中，兒童採用哪些請求策略？、2.兒童使用哪些稱呼語(alerter)和修飾語(modification)來調整他們的請求言語行為?。研究語料來自兩人一組的兒童在玩耍時的對話，兒童的年紀在四歲三個月到五歲六個月之間(平均年齡為五歲三個月)。本研究主要採用Blum-Kulka等人的請求言語行為策略分類，包含中心行為策略(head act)、稱呼語(alerter）、修飾語(modification)三個部分。研究結果發現，在中心行為策略的三個策略中—直接請求、規約性間接請求、和非規約性間接請求，兒童使用較多的直接請求策略，特別是祈使語態句(mood derivable)，顯示出兒童在同儕互動中傾向使用直接且有效力的請求策略。研究結果也發現兒童會使用稱呼語和修飾語來調整請求言語行為；在稱呼語方面，兒童使用了呼喚語(vocative)和名字(name)這兩種表親密的稱呼語來吸引同儕的注意，顯示出兒童不只能判斷對話者的注意力，也知道他們與同儕之間的對等、親近關係；在修飾語方面，兒童使用較多的緩和修飾語(mitigating modifiers)，而在所有修飾語中，兒童最常使用的三種分別為語氣弱化詞(downtoner)、 原因解釋(grounder)、強化詞(intensifier)，另外，我們也發現到兒童有時會使用兩種以上的修飾語在單一個請求行為中，從兒童使用的各種修飾語結果顯示，兒童在做請求時，能考量不同情況和跟同儕間的關係來調整請求言語行為。本研究對於漢語兒童在同儕互動中的請求言語行為的使用，不僅顯示出他們的溝通技巧與語用能力，也反映出同儕互動的特性。 / The purpose of this study is to explore preschool children’s performance of requests in peer talk. We aim to investigate what request strategies children employ when interacting with peers and how children adjust their requests with alerters and modifications. The data analyzed were the natural conversations produced by dyads of children aged from 4;3 to 5;6 (mean age: 5;3). The analytical framework adopted in this study is mainly based on the categorization of Blum-Kulka et al. (1989), including the three components of head act, alerter, and modification. The results show that among direct request, conventionally indirect request and non-conventionally indirect request, children employed more direct request strategies, especially mood derivable. It reveals that children’s requests tend to be direct in interactions with peers as the use of direct requests is more effective to attain compliance. In addition, children were found to use alerters and modifications on some occasions to get attention and to lessen or aggravate the request force. There were two types of alerters used by the children, which were name and vocative, and vocative was used more frequently than name. The children’s use of the two intimate alerters indicates that not only can children assess the focus of their interlocutors’ attention, but also that they are aware of their equal and close relationships with their peers. Regarding the use of modifications, it was found that children used more mitigating modifiers than aggravating modifiers, and that the children used downtoner, grounder, and intensifier more frequently among the modifiers. Moreover, although the children commonly used one request with one modifier, there were some cases where the children used more than one modifier in one request. The diversity in the use of modified requests reveals the children’s sensitivity to the situations in which they and their peers are engaged, and their consideration for the maintenance of interpersonal relationships. It is concluded that Mandarin-speaking children’s use of requests not only demonstrates their communicative skills and pragmatic competence, but also reflects the nature of peer interactions.