The article deals with a hint as a speech communicative element of communication; special attention is drawn to the following modern linguistic concepts – speech genres, the speech act theory, indirect speech genres, indirect speech acts. The article gives examples of speech genre models under research which show typical relations between direct (literal) and indirect meaning of a hint as an indirect communication element. It describes the place of hints as a means of rendering indirect meaning within the system of the indirect speech act and genre theory.
