The paper tentatively studies the function of the indirect speech act in Chinese cultural communication, namely, domestic communication. Two aspects are shown in this paper： communication between people of different social status, genders and casual relationships, and communication between people of same social status, genders and close relationships. Therefore, the study result can be concluded like this： whether the use of indirect speech act is successful or not always influences people＇s communication significantly.
优选论是语言知识和语言习得的理论（Prince and Smolensky 1993)。但它最早是针对音系学提出的，并成为音系学研究的主流。由于它对语言本质的认识，目前被用于语言学的许多领域，在国外语言学界有着广泛影响。本文分四个部分：分析优选论产生的背景，介绍优选论的基本观念和基本机制，评价优选论的优势，最后分析优选论与句法和语言习得领域的接点和研究状况。
