Speech Act Theory

1. Speech Act Theory TECM 5195 Dr. Chris Lam

2. Speech Act Theory • Founded by John Austin in How to do things with words • Utterances can be used to perform an act • We can do things as well as say things with utterances

3. Two parts of a speech act • Locutionary act – The act of uttering a sentence. It is a description of what the speaker says. • Illocutionary act – This is what the speaker does in an utterance. • Stating, requesting, questioning, promising, apologizing, and appointing

4. Classification of illocutionary acts • Searle (1976) classification system • Representative – Describes the state of affairs • I have five toes on my right foot. • Directive – Get the hearer to do something • Shut the door. • Question – Get the hearer to provide information • Who won the 2000 presidential election? • Commissive – Commit the speaker to do something • I’ll meet you at the library at 10:00pm • Expressive – Express the emotional state of the speaker • I’m sorry for calling you a dweeb. • Declaration – Change the status of some entity • You’re out –Uttered by an umpire

5. Practice • A doctor says to a patient, I advise you to stop smoking • One secretary says to another, My daughter’s getting married in August. • A priest says over an infant, I baptize you in the name of… • A mother says to her daughter, Who washed the dishes? • One friend says to another, I swear I won’t see Martha again

6. Answers • A doctor says to a patient, I advise you to stop smoking. (Directive) • One secretary says to another, My daughter’s getting married in August. (Representative) • A priest says over an infant, I baptize you in the name of…(Declaration) • A mother says to her daughter, Who washed the dishes? (Question) • One friend says to another, I swear I won’t see Martha again (Commissive)

7. Indirect vs. Direct Illocutionary Acts • This is when things start to get interesting. • Consider the following utterances: • Close the door. • Could you close the door? • It’s getting drafty in here. • There are multiple ways (syntactically) to deliver one single speech act.

8. What makes an utterance direct or indirect? • IF the illocutionary act (directive, question, commisssive, etc.) matches the syntactic form, THEN you have a direct utterance. • IF the illocutionary act doesn’t match the syntactic form, THEN you have an indirect utterance. • In other words, if what you say matches what you are doing, it’s direct.

9. Syntactic Forms • The structure an utterance is delivered. • Imperative – Infinitive form (remove the “to”) • Sit down. • Send me the file. • Yes-No Interrogative – Question that can be answered with a yes or no. • Do you know who is late? • Wh-Interrogative – Question that begins with wh. • Who is late? • Exclamatory – emphatic statement or declaration • How nice are you! • Declarative – Makes a statement or declaration • It’s raining outside.

10. Examples of Direct Speech acts

11. Examples of Indirect Speech acts

12. Practice For each of the following, state 1) syntactic form, 2) illocutionary act, and 3) if it’s direct or indirect • A clerk says to a customer, and your account number is… • A sign at the entrance of a cafeteria line: It is not impolite to pass others if there is a space ahead. • An impatient husband to his wife: Shouldn’t we be leaving soon? • A student, wheedling a teacher for an A, says If I don’t get an A in this course, Ill lose my scholarship.

13. Answers For each of the following, state 1) syntactic form, 2) illocutionary act, and 3) if it’s direct or indirect • A clerk says to a customer, and your account number is… • 1) Declarative, 2) Wh-question, 3) Indirect • A sign at the entrance of a cafeteria line: It is not impolite to pass others if there is a space ahead. • 1) Declarative, 2) Directive, 3) Indirect • An impatient husband to his wife: Shouldn’t we be leaving soon? • 1) Yes-no Interrogative, 2) Directive, 3) Indirect • A student, wheedling a teacher for an A, says If I don’t get an A in this course, Ill lose my scholarship. • 1) Declarative, 2) Directive, 3) Indirect

14. So what’s next? • Speech Act Theory is a descriptive theory that allows us to classify utterances. • Linguistic politeness theory extends beyond speech act theory and gets to the impact of direct/indirect utterances in particular contexts.