Speech Act

Speech act theory was proposed by John. L. Austin and has been developed by J. R. Searle. Speech act is an act that a speaker performs when making an utterance. 

SPEECH ACT ASPECT

1.   Locutionary aspect/ utterance acts (the uttering of words )

2.   Illocutionary aspect (a complete speech act, made in a typical utterance)

           a.  representatives,

           b.  directives,

           c.  commissives,

           d.  expressives and

            e.  declarations.

3.  Perlocutionary aspect ( speech act that produces an effect, intended or not, achieved in an adressee by a speaker’s utterance)

      a. Persuading 

      b. Convincing

      c.  Scaring

      d.  Insulting

            e. Getting the addressee to do something

 

Speech act functions

•      Giving factual information

                        ex. The plane departs at 7:10.

•      Giving  intellectual information

                        ex. These arguments are correct.

•      Exchange emotional attitudes

                        ex. I’m worried about my term papers.

•      Exchange moral attitudes

                        I appreciate your help.

•      Persuasion

                        Hand in your assignments.

•      Socializing

                        Hi, Larry, how are you?

TYPES OF SPEECH ACTS 

1.  Interrogatives (Hearer Knows Best)

            example: Closed (yes-no), Loaded, Open

                                    --> Do you wear a seat belt?

2.   Performatives (Affect world)

            example: Agreement, Appointment, Baptism, Declaration of Independence,Dedication,        Marriage

    The performative hypothesis

1. Implicit perfomatives/primary perrfomatives

            ex.  Clean up this mess!

                           The work was done by Elaine and myself

2.   Explicit performatives

            ex. I hereby order you that you clean up this mess.

                   I hereby tell you that the work was done by Elaine and myself

 

INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

•   “Could you move over a bit?”

•   “Yes” (without moving is inappropriate)

• Moving (without “Yes” is appropriate)

  NOTE: “Could you move over a bit” is a precondition to the actual speech act, “Move over.”           

(Mey 111)