PRAGMATICS /s2

SPEECH ACTS AND EVENTS

Spring 2018
When one speaks, one performs an act
Read these examples :
 "Hi, Eric. How are things going?"
 "Could you pass me the mashed potatoes, please?"
 "I’ve already been waiting three weeks for the computer, and
I was told it would be delivered within a week."
 "We’re having some people over Saturday evening and
wanted to know if you’d like to join us."
 "Hey, I really like your tie!"
 "Oh, I’d love to see that movie with you but this Friday just
isn’t going to work.
 Usually, we know how the speaker intends us to interpret the
function of what they said, through some words, expressions that
convey , an action, a performance. We recognize the type of the
actions performed by the utterance.
In attempting to express themselves people do not only
produce utterances containing grammatical structures and
words , they perform actions via those utterances .
Yule (1996:47)

 Whatever we try to accomplish with our language is a

communicative intention,The actual words we utter to realise a
communicative intention is called a speech act

 The term ‘speech acts’ is used to describe these actions. In the

examples above : the speech acts are
Performing an action :
Greetings
Request
Complaint
Invitation
Complement
Refusal
 A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in
communication. We perform speech acts when we
offer an apology, greeting, request, complaint,
invitation, compliment, or refusal. 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.
 THE SPEECH ACT THEORY
 The speech act theory was first proposed by the philosopher “J.L
AUSTIN’’ , in the 1930’s in his lectures at oxford university, and was
later further developed by the American philosopherJ.R Searle 1969.
They believed that language is not only used to inform or to
describe things, it is often used to “do things”, to perform acts
 The theory was published under the title “ how to do things with
words’’, in 1962.
 In his book “How to Do Things withWords, J. L. Austin argued against
a positivist philosophical claim that the utterances always "describe" or
"constate" something, and are thus always true or false
 ‘uttering such sentences is part of the doing of some action which
would not normally be described as simply saying something’’, (1962)
but rather doing something by using these speech acts .
More examples :
 “ you are fired” said the boss to an employee
 You are so nice
 You are welcome

What do you think are the actions performed through

utterances here ?
 Speech acts theory is based on the assumption that language is a
form of behaviour, and it is governed by a strict set of rules
(Searle, 1969). Austin (1962) defines speech acts as acts
performed by utterances like giving orders or making promises.
 We use language to do a wide range of activities. We use it to:
 Convey information (1) I lost my wallet.
 Request information(2) Who ate my choclate?
 Give orders(3) Close the door!!!
 Make requests (4) Please send me your e.mail .
 Make threats (5) Say it again and I will kill you.
 Give warnings(6) Beware of the dog!!!
The performative Hypothesis

 The assumption that underlying every utterance there is a

performative clause that contains a performative verb.
Sometimes the performative verb is directly , clearly,
explicitely stated, in this case we have an explicite
performative,on other cases the performative berb is not
clearly stated , the speech acts is imicitely performed, and in
this case we have an implicit speech act .

 Implicit performatives, explicit performatives

Terms you should remember in speech
acts theory :
 Performatives : the utterances we use in the speech acts. Like
the examples mentioned above. “Utterances that do not
‘describe’ or ‘report’ or constate anything at all, are not ‘true
or false,’ and the uttering of the sentence is, or is a part of,
the doing of an action, which again would not normally be
described as, or as ‘just,’ saying something. J.L.Austin
 Felicity conditions : for an utterance to perform a certain act,
some appropriate conditions have to be fulfilled. Technically,
they are called ‘felicity conditions’. ( will be explained in the
coming sub chapters )
 Speech events : the utterances, and the surrounding
circumstances of the speech act.
SPEECH ACTS
 1. locutionary act: the basic act of utterance,
producing a meaningful linguistic expression.
 2. illocutionary act/force: performed via the
communicative force of an utterance, the
function that we have in mind when we produce
an utterance. We might utter I’ve just made some
coffee to make a statement, an offer, an
explanation, etc.
 3. perlocutionary act/effect: the effect you
intend your utterance to have on the hearer, for
example, to get the hearer drink the coffee
In other words :
 Locutionary act: the act of saying, the literal meaning of
the utterance
 illocutionary act: the extra meaning of the utterance
produced on the basis of its literal meaning
 perlocutionary act: the effect of the utterance on the
hearer, depending on specific circumstances.
Locutionary Acts
 The act of saying something, the locution
itself. It is the basic act of uttering,
producing a meaningful linguistic
expression. If someone has a difficulty in
forming the words, he actually failed to to
produce a locutionary act.
Illocutionary Acts
 lllocutionary acts: are the real actions which are
performed by the utterance, where saying equals
doing, as in betting, believe , dare, warning. etc .the
performance of an act in saying something (vs. the
general act of saying something). The illocutionary force
is the speaker's intent. A true 'speech act'.
 e.g. informing, ordering, warning, undertaking.

Example:”I promise to pay you back”- is an illocutionary

act (it intends to communicate.
Perlocutionary 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! such as persuading,
convincing, scaring, enlightening,
inspiring, or otherwise getting someone to
do or realize something
 1. “ It’s stuffy in here”
The locutionary act is the saying of it with
its literal meaning “There isn’t enough fresh air
in here”. The illocutionary act can be a
request of the hearer to open the window. The
perlocutinary act can be the hearer’s
opening the window or his refusal to do so. In
fact, we might utter (1) to make a statement, a
request, an explanation, or for some other
communicative purposes. This is also generally
known as the illocutionary force of the
utterance.
PRACTICE

 Produce 3 different locutionary acts, then

explain the illocutionary force, and the
perlocutionary effect intended
 Austin focuses only on the illocutionary act, considering it the
Speech act, the illocutionary force of an utterance itself.
 The same locutionary act can have different illocutionary forces
 Eg: I WILL SEE YOU LATER

 I predict
 I warn you
 I promise you
 A PROBLEM ?
 Now , if this is the case, a locutionary act can have different
illocutionary forces, this is in fact a problem;

how can the speakers assume that the intended

illocutionary force will be interpreted and recognized
by the listener ?
This question has been addressed by the IFIDS and the
felicity conditions.
 IFIDs
Illocutionary Force Indicating Device
 The device for indicating the illocutionary force of an utterance.
There is a verb that explicitely name the illocotionary act being
performed. This verb is what we call the performative verb ( vp)
 Ex : I ( vp) you that ( warn you , promise you… )
 The verbs warn, and promise would be , if stated , very clear IFIDs.

 I advise you to keep up the payments on your car.

I warn you not to step across this line.
I promise you that I will pay the money back by the end of the month.
I bet you a dollar that it'll rain on the parade.
 But speakers, most of the times, they don’t always perform
speech acts so ‘ EXPLECITELY’ . Sometimes they just
desctribe the speech act being performed without even
stating the performative verb.

 Other IFIDs can be used to indicate the illocotionary force

 word order
 Stress
 Intonation
Read this examples

 You are going ! …………. ( I tell you that you are going )
 You’re going ? …………..( I request confirmation that YG)
 You’re going ? …………..( I ask you if you are going )

 we can also use a lowered voice quality for a warning or a

threat
The “Hereby” Test
 One simple of whether or not a particular sentence is a
performative utterance is whether or not you can
insert hereby before the verb. If the resulting sentence doesn't
make sense, it is not a performative

 We insert ‘ hereby’ between the subject and the verb, if the

utterance makes sense then the speech act is probably a
performative
"I hereby sentence you to five years in prison
I hereby confer upon you the rank of Second Lieutenant.
 I hereby apologize to you…. Sounds right
I hereby know you…. No

 Think of two examples where hereby makes sense and where

it doesn’t .
 Felicity conditions
 The conditions necessary for the success , achievement , of a speech act.

 Only certain people are qualified to declare, to sentence people to prison ,

to announce two persons husband and wife .

 Felicity conditions is a technical term used to describe certain expected or

appropriate circumstances, for the performative of the speech act to be
recognized as intended .

 The performance will be inappropriate if the speaker is not a specific person

in a specific context . Example would be a judge in a courtroom, he says :
I sentence you to six months in prison
General conditions

These are ‘ preconditions on speech acts, that exist in everyday

life among ordinary people, Austin points out to them as
‘ general conditions’ on the participants. Conditions where
the participants in the speech act can understand
the language , and they are not play-acting nay
roles .
Content conditions
 A further content condition for a promise requires that the
future event will be a future act of the speaker.
 For example , for both a promise, and a warning, the
content of the utterance must be about a future
event
Preparatory conditions
 The status , or authority of the speaker to perform the
speech act, the situation of other parties, so on
 For example, in order to sentence someone to prison one
must be a JUDGE, in order to baptize people, one must be
priest …A qualified referee can caution a player, if she is
officiating in a match, the referee’s assistant ,even though he
is a qualified referee can not do this .
 The situation of the utterance is very important also , not
only the status of the speaker
 If the president of the USA in a private conversation
jockingly declares war on a country, it is not really a
declaration of war .
Sincerity conditions
 At a simple level, these conditions show that the speaker
must really intend what he, she says. In the case of
apologizing, promising it would be impossible to know how
sincere the speaker is .
 There are certain speech acts where the sincerity of the
speaker can assured by witnesses, like taking an
oath,plighting to say the truth.
A COMPLEX EXAMPLE ?
 A teacher asking a question in a classroom, the students
assumes that he knows the answer, and is therefore not
sincere in asking the question . In this case, the use of ‘can
you, would you , tell me …would be more acceptable to the
child that ‘ what is …’
 We also sometimes use our understanding of the sincerity
conditions humorously, when we ask others , or promise to
do things which we think the others know to be impossible
 ‘ please, can you make it sunny tomorrow ?’
The essential conditions
 These conditions cover the fact that by the act of uttering a
promise, I hereby intends to create an obligation to carry out
the action as promised; The utterance changes my state from
non-obligation, to obligation.

 The essential conditions combine with a specification of what

must be in the utterance content, the context, and the
speaker’s intentions, in order for a specific speech act to be
appropriately performed
 To sum up felicity conditions
 the person performing the speech act has to have authority to
do so – only certain people are authorised to perform certain
speech acts;
the speech act has to be performed in the appropriate manner
(sometimes this involves respecting precise wording), this can also
include the demeanour
 sincerity conditions have to be present: the speech act must be
performed in a sincere manner: verbs such as promise, vow, or
guarantee are only valid if they are uttered sincerely.
So a speech act like ‘and that is enough for today’ can only be taken
as a declaration that the lesson has ended if:
 I have the authority to perform the speech act;
 If the hearers are in a position to perform the required action;
 And if there is sincerity.
 If any of these conditions is lacking, then the hearers will deduce
that they have to make a different interpretation of the speech act.
1. the sender believes the action should be done
2. the receiver has the ability to do the action
3. the receiver has the obligation to do the action
4. the sender has the right to tell the receiver to do the action
I think your boots need cleaning, Jones (Condition 1)
I’m bloody sure you can get your boots cleaner than that, Jones!
(Condition 2)
You’re supposed to come on to parade with clean boots, Jones!
(Condition 3)
It’s my job to see you’ve got cleaner boots than this! (Condition 4)
 Speech Act Classification ( Searle)
 Some linguists tried to classify illocutionary acts into a number
of categories, or types : representatives, expressives,directives,
commisives, and declarations.

 Declarations ( Declaratives ) : are those kinds of speech acts

that change the world via their utterance. For the speaker to
perform a declaration appropriately , he has to have a special
institutional role, in a specific context. Ex: Jury foreman: we find
the defendant guilty
 Representatives : are those kinds of speech acts that state what
the speaker believes to be the case or not; statement of facts,
conclusions, and descriptions. Ex: The earth is flat/ Chomsky
didn’t write about peanuts.
 I guess that he has come.
 I am certain that he has come.
I appoint
you
chairman of
the
committee.
Open the door!
Don’t you think it’s
a bit stuffy here?
I promise to
It’s very love you!
nice of you!
 Expressives : are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker feels.
They express the psychological states, and can be statements of pleasure, pain,
likes, dislikes, joy, or sorrow. Expressives are about the speaker’s experience.
ex: I am really sorry ! Congratulations !

 Directives : are those kinds of speech acts that speakers use to get someone
else to do something for you. They express what speaker wants; like commends,
orders, requests, suggestions, and they can be positive or negative
ex: give me a cup of coffee, could you lend me a pen, don’t touch that.

 Commisives : are those kinds of speech acts that speakers use to commit
themselves to some future action, they express what the speaker intends; like
promises, threats, refusals, pledges.
ex: I’ll be back / we will not do that
 Direct Vs Indirect speech acts ( Searle)
 You answered the phone.
 Did you answer the phone?
 Answer the phone!

The structure The function

Did you eat the pizza? Interrogative Question
Eat the pizza Imperative Command ( request)
You ate the pizza Declarative Statement
 When an interrogative structure is used with the function of a
question , we have a direct speech act; when we actually don’t
know something and ask someone else , we usually produce a
direct speech act : Can you ride a bicycle?

 When you say for example , can you pass me the salt please ? You
are not asking whether he/she can pass the salt, i.e the function is
not a question, but rather a request , in this case , you have an
indirect speech act .

 Using a declarative structure to make a request is another

example of an indirect speech act , ‘you left the door open’
 When the structure is used with a different illocutionary
force than the typical one, then we have an indirect speech-
act , and when it is used with the typical function of that
structure it is a direct speech act.

 The main reason we use the indirect speech act, rather than
simply using the direct one, is because in society it is
considered more polite to use for example a request, rather
than an order .
Speech Events
 Speech Events
 There are various kinds of events at which speech typically takes
place: political rally, debate, classroom lecture, religious service
(sermon, prayer, welcoming, singing); government hearing;
courtroom trial; all involve particular kinds of speech events that
are appropriate to that setting. Could also be informal: telephone
conversation, purchasing a ticket, a newspaper, ordering a meal.

 All social activities, in which language plays an important role, can

be referred to as speech events. However, this does not reduce
the term to spoken conversation because it also includes the wide
range of written communication.
 Speech Event

 Whatever type of conversation we are looking at, we will find that

it is always underlying a certain structure and that people follow
certain (culturally specific) "rules" and rituals. In a conversation,
the interlocutors (the people talking to each other) generally face
each other and do not speak simultaneously. Most people start
their conversations greeting one another, then continue in a turn-
taking way of speaking (without interrupting each other too
often). At the end of the conversation, people have, at the best,
finished what they wanted to say and say goodbye to each other in
an appropriate way.
 An activity in which participants interact via language in some conventional
way as to arrive to some outcomes
a: Oh Mary , I am glad you are here
B: what’s up
A: I can’t get my computer to work
B:is it broken ?
A: I don’t know
B: what’s it doing?
A: I don’t know , am useless with computers
B: What kind is it? A ‘requesting’ speech
event
A: it’s a mac, do you use them ?
B: yeah
A: do you have a minute?
B:Yeah, sure
A: oh great
Locutionary Acts : Bach &Harnish
 Bach and Harnish argued for the concept of locutionary acts.
 Acts of using sentences with a more or less definite sense,
they are more explicit than Austin’s explicit performatives.
 Bach and Harnish argue that determining what someone had
said by uttering a sentence amounts to determining:
 The operative meaning of the sentence uttered
 The referents for the referring expressions
 The properties and relations being ascribed
 The times specified
 With these information , the hearer can identify what speaker
said, at the locutionary level. P 63

 And to pass from locutionay to illocutionary act , one has to

infer the communicative intention of the speaker, the hearer
needs more information.
The Taxonomy of illocutionary acts ,
Bach & Harnish 1979
 They accepted most of Searle’s taxonomy, but discarded the
declaratives type, ( basicly austin’s explicit performatives)
because they took them to be simply assertives, or
constatives. Hence according to their taxonomy, illocutionary
acts are :
 Constatives: that express speaker’s belief and his desire that
the hearer forms a similar one
 Directives:that express some attitude about a possible future
action by the hearer and the intention that his utterance be
taken as reason for the hearer’s action
 Commisives: that express the speaker’s intention to do
something and the belieft hat his utterance obliges him to do
it.

 Acknoledgements, that express feelings toward the

hearer( or the intention that the utterance will meet some
social expectation regarding the expression of feelings.

 Bach &Harnish distinguised between the communicative

illocutionay acts,( the types above), and the conventional
illocutionay , a fundamentally different speech act.
Communicative & Conventional acts
 Bach & Harnish distinguished between communicative
illocutionary acts, the one to which belong the 4 types, and
the conventional illocutionary acts.
 Communicative acts are the acts performed with certain
communicative intentions whose recognition by the hearer is
necessary for the acts to be successful.
 Conventional acts, no communicative intention is involved,
the success of the speech act is a matter of convention, not
intention. Acts of institutional nature, that do not require any
communicative intention from the part of the speaker .
 Effectives: when produced by the appropriate person , in the
appropriate circumstances produce a change, a new fact in an
institutional context.
 Verdictives: do not produce facts, but determine facts,natural
or institutional, with an official, binding effect in the
institutional context: a jury’s verdict of guilt.
The Speech Acts Schema / SAS
 The SAS proposed by Bach &Harnish, provide the form of
the required inference by the hearer to understand fully the
speaker’s utterance; from the meaning of the sentence used
to the perlocutionary act performed, using besides linguistic
information , a system of communication presumptions,
together with contextual mutual beliefs.

 Bach & Harnish think that inference is there, involved from

the beginning in the determination of the locutionary act .
 Then the next step is to infer the literal illocutionary
intentions, and from here, go to the intended perlocutionary
ones ,, if they exist.

 An illocutionary act is literal when its propositional content

coincides with the content of the locutionary act, and the
force of the former is within the constraints imposed by the
latter.
References
 How to do things with words. J.L.Austin. 1962
 Gorge Yule, Pragmatics. 2008
 Your textbook of Pragmatics.