Speech Acts:
What is a Speech Act?
An action performed in saying something. We perform speech acts when
we offer an apology, greeting, request, complaint, invitation, compliment,
or refusal. A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in
communication. A speech act might contain just one word, as in "Sorry!" to
perform an apology, or several words or sentences: "I’m sorry I forgot your
birthday. I just let it slip my mind."
Speech acts include real-life interactions and require not only knowledge of
the language but also appropriate use of that language within a given culture.
Here are some examples of speech acts we use or hear every day:
Greeting: "Hi, Eric. How are things going?"
Request: "Could you pass me the mashed potatoes, please?"
Complaint: "I’ve already been waiting three weeks for the computer, and I
was told it would be delivered within a week."
Invitation: "We’re having some people over Saturday evening and wanted to
know if you’d like to join us."
Compliment: "Hey, I really like your tie!"
Refusal: "Oh, I’d love to see that movie with you but this Friday just isn’t
going to work."
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Speech act theory broadly explains these utterances:
.1Locutionary act : saying something (the locution) with a certain meaning
in traditional sense comprise simply the speech acts that have taken place.
Two types of locutionary act :
utterance acts : where something is said (or a sound is made)
and which may not have any meaning ,
example : Oh! - is an utterance (communication is not intended it is just a sound caused by surprise .)
propositional acts : where a particular reference is made
Example: ”The black cat ” (something is referenced, but no
communication may be intended
.2llocutionary acts: are the real actions which are performed by the
utterance, where saying equals doing, as in betting, believe , dare,
warning.etc .
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Example:”I promise to pay you back”- is an illocutionary act (it intends
to communicate..)
.'The illocutionary force is the speaker's intent. A true 'speech act
.e.g. informing, ordering, warning, undertaking
.3Perlocutionary acts: Speech acts that have an effect on the feelings,
thoughts or actions of either the speaker or the listener. In other words,
they seek to change minds !
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Example: “Please find the black cat ”- is a directive perlocutionary
act (it seeks to change behaviour).
Example
Oh! - is an utterance (note that communication is not intended - it
is just a sound caused by surprise).
The black cat is a propositional act (something is referenced,
but no communication may be intended)
The black cat is stupid is an assertive illocutionary act
(it intends to communicate).
Please find the black cat - is a directive perlocutionary act (it seeks
to change behaviour).
Direct speech acts
When the semantic meaning of a sentence is the same as what the speaker intended
to convey , it is described as a direct speech act.
For example, when a speaker doesn't know something and asks the hearer to
provide the information, he or she will typically produce a direct speech act of the
following type:
Can you ride a bicycle ?
Did he come to class yesterday? Structures Functions
Did you eat the pizza?............... Interrogative Question
Eat the pizza (please)! ………..Imperative Command (Request)
You ate the pizza. …………….Declarative Statement
Indirect Speech act
Whenever one of the forms in the set above is used to perform a function other
.than the one listed beside it, the result is an indirect speech act
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Now compare this utterance with
?Can you pass the salt“
In this second example, you would not usually understand the utterance as a
question about your ability to do something. In fact, you would not treat this as a
question at all. You would treat it as a request and perform the action requested.
We are not really asking a question about someone’s ability. In fact, we don’t
normally use this structure as a question at all. We normally use it to make a
request. That is, we are using a syntactic structure associated with the function
of a question, but in this case with the function of a request. This is an example
of an indirect speech act.
The utterance You left the door open has a declarative structure and, as a direct
speech act, would be used to make a statement. However, if you say this to
someone who has just come in (and it’s really cold outside), you would
probably want that person to close the door. You are not using the imperative
structure. You are using a declarative structure to make a request. It’s another
example of an indirect speech act.
It is possible to have strange effects if one person fails to recognize another
person’s indirect speech act. Consider the following scene. A visitor to a city,
carrying his luggage, looking lost, stops a passer-by.
: Excuse me. Do you know where the Ambassador Hotel is?
: Oh sure, I know where it is. (and walks away)
In this scene, the visitor uses a form normally associated with a question (Do
you know . . .?), and the passer-by answers that question literally (I know . . .) .
That is, the passer-by is acting as if the utterance was a direct speech act instead
of an indirect speech act used as a request for directions. Failure to recognize
indirect speech acts can lead to some bizarre interactions.
The main reason we use indirect speech acts seems to be that actions such as
requests presented in an indirect way (Could you open that door for me?) are
generally considered to be more gentle or more polite in our society than direct
speech acts (Open that door for me!). Exactly why they are considered to be
more polite is based on some complex social assumptions.
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Politeness
We can think of politeness in general terms as having to do with ideas like being
tactful, modest and nice to other people. In the study of linguistic politeness, the
most relevant concept is ‘face’. Your face, in pragmatics, is your public selfimage. This is the emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects
everyone else to recognize. Politeness can be defined as showing awareness of and
consideration for another person’s face.
If you say something that represents a threat to another person’s self-image,
that is called a face-threatening act.
For example, if you use a direct speech act to get someone to do something (Give
me that paper!), you are behaving as if you have more social power than the other
person. If you don’t actually have that social power (e.g. you’re not a military
officer or prison warden), then you are performing a face-threatening act.
An indirect speech act, in the form associated with a question (Could you pass me
that paper?), removes the assumption of social power. You’re only asking if it’s
possible. This makes your request less threatening to the other person’s face.
Whenever you say something that lessens the possible threat to another’s face, it
can be described as a face-saving act.
Negative and positive face
We have both a negative face and a positive face. (Note that ‘negative’ doesn’t
mean ‘bad’ here, it’s simply the opposite of ‘positive’.)
Negative face is the need to be independent and free from imposition. The
desire to feel unimpeded, i.e. the freedom from feeling imposed upon by the
interaction
Positive face is the need to be connected, to belong, to be a member of the
group. The desire to feel approved of , i.e. to maintain a positive and consistent
self-image during the interaction.
So, a face-saving act that emphasizes a person’s negative face will show concern
about imposition
……… (I’m sorry to bother you . . .; I know you’re busy, but . . .).
A face-saving act that emphasizes a person’s positive face will show solidarity and
draw attention to a common goal (Let’s do this together . . .; You and I have the
same problem, so . . .).
Ideas about the appropriate language to mark politeness differ substantially
from one culture to the next. If you have grown up in a culture that has directness
as a valued way of showing solidarity, and you use direct speech acts (Give me that
chair!) topeoplewhose culture is more oriented to indirectness and avoiding direct
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imposition, then you will be considered impolite. You, in turn, may think of the
others as vague and unsure of whether they really want something or are just
asking about it (Are you using this chair?). In either case, it is the pragmatics that
is misunderstood and, unfortunately, more will be communicated than is said.
Understanding how successful communication works is actually a process of
interpreting not just what speakers say, but what they ‘intend to mean’.
Deixis
It refers to the phenomenon wherein understanding the meaning of certain words
and phrases in an utterance requires contextual information .
There are some words in the language that cannot be interpreted at all unless the
physical context, especially the physical context of the speaker, is known. These
are words like here, there, this, that, now, then, yesterday ,
As well as most pronouns, such as I, you, him, her, them. Some sentences of
English are virtually impossible to understand if we don't know who is speaking,
about whom, where and when. e. g.
You'll have to bring that back tomorrow, because they aren't here now.”
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Out of context, this sentence is extremely vague. It contains a large number
of expressions (you, that, tomorrow, they, here, now) which depend for their
interpretation on the immediate physical context in which they were uttered. .
These expressions have to be interpreted in terms of what person ,place or time the
speaker has in mind.
Person deixis: Concerns with the grammatical persons involved in an
utterance ,
)1(those directly involved (e.g. the speaker, the addressee ,)
)3(those mentioned in the utterance
Generally indicated by pronouns
Examples:
I am going to the movies.
Would you like to have dinner?
They tried to hurt me, but he came to the rescue.
Place Deixis
Concernsed with the spatial locations relevant to an utterance .
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Examples:
I enjoy living in this city.
Here is where we will place the statue .
She was sitting over there
Deictic terms are generally understood to be relative to the location of the
speaker, as in
“The shop is across the street”.
“here” and “there” are often used to refer to locations near to and
far from the speaker ,
“Here is a good spot; it is too sunny over there”.
“there” can also refer to the location of the addressee ,
“How is the weather there“ ?
In other languages, the distinction is three-way: proximal, i.e. near
the speaker, medial, i.e. near the addressee, and distal, i.e. far from
both
eg in Korean, Japanese, Thai, Filipino and Turkish
Temporal deixis
Concerns itself with the various times involved in and referred to in an
utterance .
Example adverbs like "now", "then ,"
2categories:
Encoding Time, or ET: Relative to the time when an utterance is made
"encoding time", or ET.
Decoding Time or DT: when the utterance is heard
Example: It is raining out now, but I hope when you read this it will be
sunny.
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