Abstract. This article examines the various grammatical means used to represent commissive speech acts in colloquial English discourse. Commissives are illocutionary acts that commit the speaker to a future course of action, such as promises, threats, refusals and agreements. Through corpus analysis of casual conversation transcripts, this study identifies and analyzes the most common grammatical forms that realize commissive functions in everyday English, including modal verbs, semi-modals, imperatives, and others. The distribution and frequency of these forms is presented. This work aims to provide a clearer understanding of how speakers verbally commit to future actions in colloquial interaction through the strategic deployment of grammatical resources.
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