STRUCTURAL-PRAGMATIC REALIZATION OF PROHIBITIVE SPEECH ACTS IN Roald DAHL’S SHORT STORIES “LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER,” “THE LANDLADY,” AND “POISON”

Abstract

This study examines the structural and pragmatic manifestations of prohibitive speech acts in three short stories by Roald Dahl: Lamb to the Slaughter (1953), The Landlady (1959), and Poison (1950). Grounded in Searle’s (1969) Speech Act Theory and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Politeness Theory, the analysis identifies four principal categories of prohibitive devices: explicit negative imperatives, deontic modal prohibitions, indirect/conversational prohibitions, and self- directed prohibitions. The findings demonstrate that Dahl strategically deploys prohibitive language not merely as a grammatical directive form, but as a mechanism for encoding power asymmetry, psychological manipulation, and narrative irony.