1 / 8

Topic 8: speech act

Topic 8: speech act. Introduction to Semantics. How to do things with words. Speech act We make an utterances to perform actions. Can we really do things with words?. Act of Assertion. An utterance of a declarative sentence with a commitment to the speaker.

klinem
Download Presentation

Topic 8: speech act

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Topic 8: speech act Introduction to Semantics

  2. How to do things with words • Speech act • We make an utterances to perform actions. • Can we really do things with words?

  3. Act of Assertion • An utterance of a declarative sentence with a commitment to the speaker. • ‘John is doing his homework in the room.’

  4. The descriptive fallacy • The purpose of the utterance is the description of the event, and nothing more. • ‘John is doing his homework in the room.’

  5. A performative utterance • The utterance that perform and describe the act at the same time. • ‘I promise I’ll buy you a cup of coffee tomorrow.’ • Perform an describe • ‘I promised to buy you a cup of coffee tomorrow.’ • Describe but not perform

  6. Performative verbs • Used in a simple positive present tense sentence • 1st person singular subject • I promise… • I sentence you… • I apologize…

  7. Test of performative verbs • I hereby V • I _______ name the ship ‘Elizabeth’. • I _______ warn you not to sleep in class. • I _______ believe that there’s no Santa Claus.

More Related