ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between linguistic form and the functions of speech, focusing in particular on teachers directives to elementary or primary school children. There would seem then to be both theoretical and empirical justification for positing a hierarchical relationship between speech functions and speech acts. Imperative forms were the most frequently occurring realizations of directives in the data. Although less frequent than imperative forms, interrogative structures functioning as directives were relatively common in the classroom data. Declarative directives in the classroom fell into two contrasting categories according to their relative explicitness and the amount of inference required to interpret the directive intent. Children apparently acquire the necessary sociolinguistic competence very rapidly, and do not often misinterpret the function of the forms they hear. A correct interpretation of teachers directives requires that the child recognize the controlling role and powerful status of the teacher in the classroom, and the rights associated with that role and status.
