“I am not criticizing you”

Abstract

This study examines a Chinese indirect speech act conventionally expressed with what I call the construction of earnest advice. From a constructionist perspective, I posit that the construction of earnest advice is an indirect speech act construction. Its idiosyncratic form is paired with the function of showing genuine concern and providing advice in the best interest of the hearer. Based on corpus evidence and discourse analysis, I analyze the contextually situated subtypes of this function, including passing judgments, providing suggestions, issuing complaints and mock sarcasms. The use of the contextual subtypes depends on interpersonal factors such as social distance, power difference, and group membership. This study has implications for politeness theories.