Are correct grammatical structures alone enough to achieve your communicative goals?

In a scene from the popular US sitcom The Big Bang Theory, Leonard and Sheldon are in their apartment quietly working when there is a knock at the door.

Leonoard, busy cooking, says to Sheldon: ´Wanna get that?´

Sheldon replies: ´Not particularly´

A little taken aback, Leonard tries again: ´Could you get that?´

´I suppose I could if I were asked´ says Sheldon

Leonard, now frustrated, tries a more direct approach ´Would you please get that?´

´Well of course´ responds Sheldon. ´Why do you have to make things so complicated?´

The audience laughs.

https://youtu.be/fhv1dOae9MU

Sheldon didn´t misunderstand the words Leonard used, but he did misunderstand the intended meaning, or the illocutionary act, of a request to answer the door. Sheldon´s failure to get this, while the entire audience does, is the source of the humour here, as they feel Leonard´s frustration at trying to make a polite request of Sheldon.

The area of linguistics that deals with meaning that's over and above the words is called pragmatics, and it is concerned with sensitive speech acts like requesting, apologizing, criticizing, refusing etc, and strategies to achieve success in these interactions where the other person could easily be embarrassed.

Here's another example, this time successful. It's a fresh morning and you have your office window open. You love the cool air. A colleague walks into your office and is surprised by the chilly temperature! Your colleague comments, "It's a chilly morning today, isn't it?”. This may seem like an attempt at small talk about the weather, but actually it is a request for you to close the window, without directly asking you to complete the action for them. While Sheldon might reply ´Actually I´m comfortably warm´, you and most people would close their window. Because of your pragmatic competence, you would understand this. With your colleague´s indirect request, they successfully achieved their goal of you closing the window, and you have agreed to do this without being embarrassed. If they simply came in and said ´Please close the window´, how would you feel?

´Why do you have to make things so complicated?´, as Sheldon asked. Well, this area of communication may well be complicated for learners of English, particularly if your culture is more direct, but as a learner of English it is essential to be aware of this area of sociolinguistics and to develop your pragmatic competence. As we saw in the example from the Big Bang Theory, meaning sometimes goes beyond the literal meaning of the words; and, as we saw, a lack of pragmatic competence could lead to frustration or ridicule.

So, To be an effective communicator, you need not only linguistic competence (grammar and vocabulary) but you need to develop sociolinguistic/pragmatic competence too. This will help you select and exploit strategies to achieve your objectives successfully when performing sensitive speech acts like requesting, apologizing, and criticizing etc. If you work closely with people, particularly from English-speaking cultures, this is a communicative competence worth developing!