Speech acts and events

Ctions performed To express themselves, people do not only produce utterances, they perform actions via those Utterances, such as compliment in [2a], acknow- Ledgement of thanks in [2b] and surprise in [2c]. [2] a. You’re so delicious. b. You’re welcome. c. You’re crazy. Actions performed via utterances are called speech acts. Different kinds of speech acts apply to the speaker’s communicative intention.

Ctions performed The circumstances surrounding the utterance are called speech event. Types of speech acts 1- locutionary act: It is the act of uttering or producing a meaningful Linguistic expression. 2- illocutionary act: It is the communicative purpose of an utterance. It is known as illocutionary force. 3- perlocutionary act: It is the effect of an utterance on the hearer. It is known as perlocutionary effect.

Ctions performed Q. How can speakers assume that the intended illocutionary force will be recognized by the hearers? A.By two things: illocutionary force indicating devices and felicity conditions. IFIDs It is an expression where there is a slot for a verb that explicitly names the illocutionary act being performed. Such a verb can be called performative verb (Vp). [6] I (Vp) that ….. The (Vp) can be ‘promise’, ‘warn’ etc.

Ctions performed Other IFIDs which can be identified are word order, stress and intonation, as in [8]. [ 8] a. You’re going! [I tell you Y-G] b. You’re going? [I request confirmation about Y-G] c. Are you going? [I ask you if Y-G] Felicity conditions are appropriate circumstances for the performance for a speech act to be recognized as intended. For example, the performance of [9] will be infelicitous (inappropriate) if the speaker is not a specific person in a special context (a judge in a courtroom) [9] I sentence you to six months in prison.

Felicity Conditions General Conditions.  Participants can understand the language being used.  They are not play-acting or being nonsensical

Content Conditions For both a promise and a warning, the content of the utterance must be about a future event Preparatory Conditions. When I promise to do something:  The event will not happen by itself  The event will have a beneficial effect

Sencerity Conditions For a promise, the speaker genuinely intends to carry out the future action For a warning, the speaker genuinely believes that the future event will not have a beneficial effect.

Essential Conditions By the act of uttering a promise I intend to create the obligation to carry out the action as promised. The utterance changes my state from non- obligation to obligation.

Ctions performed There are preconditions on speech acts. 1-The general conditions 2-The content conditions 3-The preparatory conditions 4-The sincerity conditions 5-The essential conditions (cf. pp.50-51) The performative hypothesis It assumes that underlying every utterance (U) there is a clause containing a performative verb (Vp) which makes the illocutionary force explicit. [10] I (hereby) Vp you (that) U

Ctions performed [11] a. Clean up this mess! (implicit performative) b. I hereby order you that you clean up this mess! (explicit performative) The advantages - It makes clear just what elements are involved in the production and interpretation of utterances. - It shows that some adverbs (honestly) or adverbial clauses (because I may be late) naturally attach to the explicit performative clause rather than the implicit version.

Ctions performed The disadvantages - uttering the explicit performative has a much more serious impact than the implicit version. - It is difficult to know exactly what the performative verb might be for some utterances. (p.52) Speech act classification There are five types of general functions performed by speech acts. 1- Declarations are those which change the world via their utterance. [15] a. Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife.

Ctions performed 2- Representatives are those which state what the speaker believes to be the case or not, such as statements of fact, assertions, conclusions and descriptions. [16] a. The earth is flat. b. It was a warm sunny day. 3- Expressives are those which state what the speaker feels. [17] a. I’m really sorry. b. Congratulations!

Ctions performed 4- Directives are those which speakers use to get someone else to do something, such as commands, orders, requests and suggestions. [18] a. Gimme a cup of coffee. b. Could you lend me a pen, please? c. Don’t touch that. 5- commissives are those which speakers use to commit themselves to some future action. [19] a. I’ll be back. b. I’m going to get it right next time.

Ctions performed Direct and indirect speech acts Types of speech acts can be made on the basis of structure: declarative, interrogative and imperative. Their related communicative functions are statement, question and command/request. [20] a. You wear a seat belt. b. Do you wear a seat belt? c. Wear a seat belt! Whenever there is a direct relationship between a structure and a function, we have a direct speech act. Whenever we have an indirect relationship between a structure and a function, we have an indirect speech act.

Ctions performed Thus, a declarative used to make a statement is a direct speech act, but a declarative used to make a request is an indirect speech act. [21] a. It’s cold outside. * The same applies to the other structures. [23] a. Could you pass the salt? b. Would you open this? * * * * * * * * *