• Actions performed via utterances are called
Speech Acts.
In English they are commonly known as: apology, compliment, complaint, invitation, promise, or
request and apply to the speaker’s communicative intention.
• The circumstances surrounding the utterance are called the Speech Event and it’s their nature that determines the interpretation of an utterance as performing a particular speech act.

“This tea is really cold!”
This utterance can be interpreted as a complaint or as a praise, depending on the circumstances. (If it is winter or summer, a cold or a hot day, etc.)

the basic act of utterance which produces a meaningful linguistic expression.
If you have difficulty in producing a meaningful utterance (because it’s a foreign language or you’re tongue-tied), then you might fail to produce a locutionary act.
Aha mokofa
WHAT
??

• The communicative force of an utterance. We form an utterance with some kind of function in mind:
 An offer, a statement, a promise, a threat, etc.
The effect of an utterance

Take the next utterance and state the illocutionary act/force.

The same locutionary act can represent different illocutionary forces:
 A prediction
 A warning
 A promise

How can the speaker assume that the intended illocutionary force wil be recognized by the hearer?



IFIDs
The most common IFIDs are performative verbs: verbs that explicitly name the illocutionary act being performed.
i.e: “I promise you that…”
“I warn you that…”
“I predict that…”
Felicity
Conditions
Certain expected or appropiate circumstances for a speech act to be recognized as intended.
i.e: “ I sentence you to six months of prison”
If the speaker wasn’t a judge in a court, this performance would be infelicitous or inappropiate.

OTHER IFIDs
 Word order
 Stress
 Intonation i.e: “You’re going!” (I tell you)
“You’re going ?”( I request confirmation)
“Are you going ?”( I ask you if)
Other Felicity conditions
 General
Conditions: on the participants, for example, that they can understand the same
language, and that they aren’t play-acting or being non-sensical.
• Content
Conditions: for example, a promise must be about a future event.

Preparatory Conditions: specific requirements prior to an utterance in order for it to count as a particular speech act.
Sincerity conditions: requirements on the genuine intentions of a speaker.
For example: for a promise, the speaker genuinely intends to carry out the future action.

A requirement that the utterance commits the speaker to the act performed.
The utterance changes my state from nonobligation to obligation.

1- DECLARATIONS: speech acts that change the world via an utterance. The speaker has to have a specific role, in a specific context, in order to perform a declaration appropiately.
• “I now pronounce you husband and wife” (Priest)
• “You’re out” (referee)

2- REPRESENTATIVES: speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the case or not.
Statements of fact, assertions, conclusions, descriptions, etc.
• “The Earth is flat.”
• “Chomsky didn’t write about peanuts”.

3- EXPRESSIVES: speech acts that state what the speaker feels.
They express psychological states and can be statements of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes,
joy, or sorrow.
• “I’m really sorry!”
• “Congratulations!”

4- DIRECTIVES: speech acts used to get someone else to do sth.
They express what the speaker wants. They are: commands, orders, requests, suggestions.
They can be positive or negative.
• “Gimme a cup of coffee. Make it black”.
• “Don’t touch that”.
• “Could you lend me a pen, please?”

5- COMMISSIVES: speech acts used by speakers to commit themselves to some future action .
They are: promises, threats, refusals, pledges, etc.
• “ I’ll be back”.
• “We are going to get it right next time.”
• “We won’t do that”.

DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS
• DIRECT: when there’s a direct relationship between the structure (declarative, interrogative, imperative) and its communicative function (statement, question, commnad/request.)
• INDIRECT: Indirect relation between the structure and function.

• “Move out of the way!” – (the only direct command.)
• “Do you have to stand in front of the T.V?”( A question functioning as an indirect command)
• “You’re standing in front of the T.V
!”.
( a declarative functioning as an indirect request)

• A linguistic interaction is necessarily a social interaction.
• We take part in a wide range of interactions, mostly with strangers, where the social
distance determined by external factors is dominant.
• However, there are other factors, like amount
of imposition or degree of friendliness, which are often negotiated.

• “Polite social behaviour” within a culture. We assume that participants in an interaction are generally aware of such cultural norms and principles of politeness.
Face: the public self-image of a person. It refers to that emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects the other sto recognize.
Politeness in an interaction can be defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face.

Examples of social distance: respect or deference
“Excuse, Mr. Buckingham, can I talk to you for a second?”
Social closeness: friendliness,
camaraderie, or solidarity.
“Hey, Bucky, got a minute?”

Face Wants: A person’s expectations that their pulic self-image will be respected .
• If a speaker says sth. that represents a threat to another individual’s expectations, regarding self-image, it’s described as a face- threatening act.
• When someone says an utterance that avoids a potential threat t a person’s face, it’s called face-saving act.

A: “I’m going to tell him to stop that awful noise right now!!” (Face-threatening act)
B: “Perhaps you could just ask him if he’s going to stop because it’s getting late and we need to sleep…”
(Face- saving act)

Imagine you arrive at a lecture but you’ve forgotten a pen to take your notes. You think that teh person next to you may provide the solution.
In this scenario, you’re going to be SELF, and the person next to you OTHER.
You: (look in bag, rummage in, search in pockets)
The Other: “Here, use this.”

That was called a “Say nothing approach”
• Without uttering a word, you have the intention that your problem will be recognized.
• Many people prefer to have their needs recognized by others wihout having to express those needs in langauge.
• When those needs are in fact recognized, more has been communicated than was said.

“Uh, I forgot my pen”
“Hmm, I wonder where I put my pen”
These statements are not directly addressed t the other. The other can act as if they have not even been heard.
Off record expressions: utterances not directly addressed t another one.

On record experssions: are direct address froms.
“Give me a pen”
“Lend me your pen”
These are known as bald on record- they’re the most direct approach, like the use of imperatives.
Would you lend me a pen, please?” Here we use
mitigating devices, like would and please, that soften the demand.