Lecture Note #5: SPEECH ACT

1. Lecture Note #5: SPEECH ACT Your host E. Aminudin Aziz

2. The Genesis of the Speech Act Studies Austin’s observation on (many or even most) acts realised through speech • People do things with words • The idea sharply contrasts with truth conditions semantics which relies on logical relations of sentences and the truthfulness (or availability) of references in the real (as well as imaginary) world • Austin’s claim about Ordinary Language Philosophers

3. Performativesvsconstatives • In his early work on speech acts, the philosopher Austin drew a distinction between constative utterances, like Thecat sat on the mat, which had a purely descriptive (statement-making) function and which could be treated in terms of truth and falsehood, and performative utterences, like I promise it will never happen again, which he claimed were neither true nor false but felicitous or infelicitous.

4. A performative verb is one which designates a specific speech act and which, if used appropriately, counts as the performance of the speech act. • In his later work, Austin dropped this distinction in favour of a distinction between explicit performatives (like I promise it will never happen again) and primary or implicit performatives (like It will never happen again, functioning as promise). • A performative verb in a performative use can typically be accompanied by hereby(cf. IFIDs)

5. Felicity conditions (Austin 1962; but cf. Bach & Harnish 1975; Allan 1986) “the conditions that must be satisfied for a speech act to be properly performed” (aka “happiness conditions”) • preparatory condition [P]: it defines an appropriate setting for the act, including the speaker’s intentions and qualifications; • sincerity condition [S]: it requires the speaker to be sincere; • essential condition or illocutionary intention [I]: it defines the essential nature of the speech act.

6. E.g.: a promise can be defined as • [P] S genuinely believes that S can do A • [S] S willingly intends to do A of his own volition • [I] S reflexively-intends that U be a reason to believe that S willingly undertakes the obligation to do A and intends to do A.

7. a refusal can be defined as an utterance in which • [P] S is unable and/or unwilling to do A • [I] S intends that U be a reason for H to believe that S is unable or unwilling to do A • [I] S reflexively-intends that H take U to be a reason to believe that S is unable or unwilling to do A

8. Locution vs illocution vsperlocution • A locution has to do with the actual utterances produced by a speaker. It can be in the forms of declarative, imperative, or interrogative sentences. E.g. a) I order you to leave immediately : declarative b) Go away! : imperative c) Out! : declarative d) Won’t you stay here? : neg. interrogative

9. An illocution is the force or intention behind words. The illocution is the property of the utterance. • Notice the IFID order in the example a) above. The use of the performative verb order explicitly states the illocutionary point of the utterance, i.e. a command. • The imperative in b) is a conventionalised way for Speaker S to tell Hearer H to do something, and one that leaves no room for doubt when spoken with appropriate prosody). • To have the illocutionary force of a command, c) must be spoken with appropriate prosody and in an appropriate context (cf. the same utterance uttered by an umpire in a game of tennis) •  Illocutionary acts as the “central interest” of Austin’s speech act theory)

10. A perlocution is the effect of the utterance on Hearer H. • Suppose Speaker S says There is a spider on your lap. In saying this, S is making a statement about the location of a spider; i.e. the utterance has the illocution of a statement. • It may also the case that by uttering the utterance, Speaker S • frightens H • alerts H by warning him/her • persuades H to an opinion by stating supporting facts • intimidates H by threatening him/her • gets H to do something by means of a request or command. • etc

11. Classifications of Speech Acts: some views • Searle (1976): performative verbs as the basis • Representatives: asserting, concluding • Directives: requesting, questioning • Commissives: promising, threatening, offering • Expressives: thanking, apologising, welcoming, congratulating • Declarations: declaring war, christening, firing from employment

12. Allan (1986; 1994; 1998) • Interpersonal Acts defined on the basis of two felicity conditions: a preparatory condition [P] which invokes the value, and a sincerity condition [S]. The third element in the definition is the illocutionary intention [I], which represents S’s reflexive-intention that H should recognise that in uttering U, S intends to have H recognise his/her particular illocution. The preparatory condition is presupposed by the sincerity condition. • Constatives(truth values) • Predictives (probable-truth values) • Commissives (genuinnessvalues) • Acknowledgements (appropriacy values) • Directives (compliance values) • Authoritatives (authority values)

13. Declaratory Acts (authority values) is typically broadcast within a social group; and the act relies for its success on S being sanctioned by the group, or by a community, institution, committee, or even a single person within the group, to perform such acts under stipulated conditions, which are unnecessary for interpersonal acts, including: • an executive condition of the speaker [Es] • an executive condition on the utterance [Eu] • an executive condition on the context in which U is uttered by S [Ec] • Effectives (bring about states of affairs such as baptism, marriage, knighting, etc.) • Verdictives(express decisions on states of affairs, often through S declaring a choice between competing possibilities)