Advanced Spoken English Speech Act Theory

What are Speech Acts? Speaking is performative Utterances are functional -Giving orders, instructions -Making requests, suggestions -Offering advice, opinions -Taking orders, taking advice --> These are “Speech Acts”

Propositional Content/ Illocutionary Force Literal meaning of utterance “It’s cold in here” “There’s food in the fridge” “Thank you for not smoking” Aim, intention of utterance Offering Promising Enquiring Requesting Exclaiming in pain Ordering

Three Kinds of Act Locutionary Illocutionary Perlocutionary  Actual, literal meaning  Speaker’s intentions in uttering  Effect on receiver’s thought or action

Illocutionary Acts Depend on … Form Content Context E.g. Possible illocutionary force of ‘Oh’, ‘Yes’ or ‘Hello’ … Can be spread over several sentences …Two or more can coexist in one utterance

Sentence Structure and Language Function Interrogative Declarative Imperative Elicits information Conveys information Issues an order

Direct/ Indirect Speech Acts We don’t always mean what we say We don’t always intend what is expressed by the literal meaning (implicature, irony) Modality e.g. ‘can’ Indirect Speech Acts: “There’s beer in the fridge” “Can I help you?” “I’ll take six lemons” “Nice haircut!”

Direct/ Indirect Requests Brainstorm with a partner how many ways you can think of to request someone to take the rubbish out. (3 mins!)

Direct/ Indirect Requests Please take out the rubbish I request you to take out the trash Trash out now! The garbage isn’t out yet Could you take out the garbage? Who’s doing the trash this week? Are you in charge of the waste? The wastepaper needs emptying

Politeness and Indirectness “I was wondering if you’d like to go to a movie” “Would you mind closing the door?” “Would I be able to borrow some paper?” “What was your name again?”

Performative Verbs I guess you’re from China I bet Roddick’s gonna win I now pronounce you man and wife Promise!

Felicity Conditions -“Right person, place and time” -Successful performative Speech acts need... a social construct (Priest, Queen, Judge, police) appropriate circumstances A speaker with authority Correct procedure and response Speakers with sincere thoughts/ intentions

Cross Cultural Pragmatics and Pragmalinguistics/ Sociopragmatics Across cultures, meaning behind a speech act can vary, e.g. status of the ‘apology’, force of the ‘complaint’, cultural content of ‘requests, questioning styles, ways of giving advice Utterances have local, sociopragmatic conditions There are culturally distinct ways of showing and understanding speech acts (Wierzbicka, 1991)

Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure Due to: -L2 speaker assessing situational factors on the basis of sociopragmatic norms of L1, e.g. Japanese over-apologizing, students misunderstanding the role of the teacher -L2 speaker transferring procedure and linguistic way of realising a speech act from L1 to L2, e.g. complaining, bartering  Difference between meaning and saying

Think …. Have you ever experienced Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure? Describe it and analyse it in terms of ‘saying’ and ‘meaning’

Reference Slides adapted from Brian Paltridge (2002). Making Sense of Discourse Analysis, AEE: Gold Coast. ‘Speech Act Theory’, pp