SPEECH ACTS *So while the utterance literally asks the addressee if
-makes is an utterance that a speaker makes to
achieve an intended effect. Some of the function
which are carried out using speech acts are offering
an apology, greeting, request, compliant, invitation,
compliment, or refusal.
-A speech act might contain just one word or several
words or sentences.
Ex; “thanks” and thank you for always being there for
me. I really appreciate it” both shows appreciation
regardless of the length of the statement.
*According to J.L. Austin (1962), a philosopher of
language and the developer of the Speech Acts
Theory, there are three types of acts in every
utterance, given the right circumstances or context.
3 TYPES OF SPEECH ACTS
1)LOCUTIONARY ACT
- The actual act of uttering.
Ex; “please do the dishes”
2) ILLOCUTIONARY ACT
- Is the social function of what is said.
Ex; By uttering the location “Please do the dishes,”
the speaker request the addressee to wash the
dishes.
3)PERLOCUTIONARY ACT
- Is the resulting act of what is said.
Ex; “Please do the dishes” would lead to the
addressee washing the dishes.
*There are also indirect speech acts which occur
when there is no direct connection between the
form of the intended meaning. They are
different in force (i.e., intention) from the
inferred speech act.
Ex; “Can you pass the rice?”
Inferred speech act: Do you have the ability to pass
the rice?
Indirect speech act: Please pass the rice.
he she had the ability to hand a plate of rice, it
actually indirectly requests the addressee to pass the
rice to the speaker.
PERFORMATIVES
-Statements which enable the speaker to perform
something just by stating it. In this manner, verbs that
execute the speech act that they intended to effect.
- A performative utterance said by the right person
under the right circumstances results in a change in
the world. Note that certain conditions have to be
met when making a performative utterance.
Ex; the phrase “I now pronounce you husband and
wife,” when uttered by an authorized person such as
a judge will have the actual effect of binding a couple
in mirage. However, if the same statement is uttered
to the same couple in the same place by someone
who is not authorized to marry them-as in the case of
the accompanying picture, a robot-then there is no
effect whatsoever because a condition was not met.
*Different types of speech act are used to express
different kinds of intentions.
*Communicative competence is need to understand a
language and to be able to understand speech acts.
FELICITY CONDITIONS
-The conditions that have to be met for a statement
to be classified as a performative act.
3 FELICITY CONDITIONS
1) there must be a conventional procedure with a
conventional effect (such as in wedding two people:
the frozen ritual and the effect of the couple getting
married);
2) the circumstances and the persons must be
appropriate (a teacher cannot sentence a convicted
felon to prison because she does not have the correct
qualifications); and
3) the procedure must be done correctly and
completely (if a priest weds two couples, but in an
informal setting, it is not considered a performative
act).