Why does an email request like "Can you possibly review this report by tomorrow?" often lead to slower response than "Please review this report by tomorrow!"?

💡 Explanation

Politeness implicature introduces indirectness that weakens the perceived urgency of the request because this pragmatic mechanism reduces the directness of the command, signaling lower priority; therefore, the first request elicits slower action, rather than direct requests which convey immediacy.

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