Speech Acts and Events

The utterances we produce not only contain grammatical structures and words, but we also
perform actions via our utterances​.

Actions performed via utterances are called ​Speech Acts​. When producing an utterance,
the speaker has a communicative intention; because of this, in English, the speech acts are
commonly given more specific labels: apology, complaint, compliment, invitation, promise,
request, etc.

The speaker normally expects the hearer to recognize his/her communication intention. Both
the speaker and the hearer are usually helped in this process by the circumstances
surrounding the utterance; these circumstances are called the ​Speech Event​.

Because the same utterance can be interpreted as different kinds of speech act, it is usually
the nature of the speech event that determines the interpretation of an utterance as
performing a particular speech act.

Speech Acts

The action performed by producing an utterance will consist of three related acts.

1. ​Locutionary act: ​the basic act of utterance, or producing a meaningful linguistic

expression.

2.​ Illocutionary act:​ this act is performed via the communicative force of an utterance (we
form an utterance with some kind of function in mind).
● Illocutionary force: ​the illocutionary force of an utterance is what it “counts as”; the
same illocutionary act “I’ll see you later” can count as:
a. I predict that.
b. I promise that.
c. I warn you that.

3. ​Perlocutionary act: ​we do not create an utterance with a function without intending it to
have an effect. Depending on the circumstances, you will utter something assuming that the
hearer will recognize the effect you intended; this is also generally known as the
perlocutionary effect​.

BUT, how can speakers assume that the intended illocutionary force will be recognized by
the hearer? Considering two things:
○ Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices (IFIDs).
○ Felicity Conditions.

IFIDs

The most obvious device indicating the illocutionary force is an expression where there is a
verb that explicitly names the illocutionary act being performed. This verb is a ​Performative
Verb (Vp)​.
Example: I​ promise (Vp) ​you that…

However, a performative verb is not always mentioned. Other IFIDs which can be identified,
then, are ​word order​, ​stress​, and​ intonation​. Examples:
a. You’re going! [I tell you you’re going]
b. You’re going? [I request confirmation]
c. Are you going? [I ask you if you’re going]

Even though other devices, such as lowered voice quality for a warning, might be used, the
utterance also has to be produced under certain conventional conditions to count as having
the intended illocutionary force.

Felicity Conditions

In order for the speech act to be recognized as you intended, there are certain expected or
appropriate circumstances known as ​Felicity Conditions​. For example, in some cases, the
performance will be infelicitous (inappropriate) if the speaker is not a specific person in a
special context:
“I sentence you to six months in prison”​ has to be performed by a judge in a courtroom.

There are also pre-conditions on speech acts among ordinary people in everyday contexts.
The author takes the examples of a promise or a warning to explain this:

1. General Conditions:​ the participants can understand the language being used and
that they are not play-acting or being nonsensical.
2. Content Conditions:​ for both a promise and a warning, the content of the utterance
must be about a future event (in the case of a promise, another content condition is
that the future event will be a future act of the speaker).
3. Preparatory Conditions:​ with the utterance of a promise there are two preparatory
conditions, that the event will not happen by itself and that the event will have a
beneficial effect. With the utterance of a warning, the preparatory conditions are that
it isn’t clear that the hearer knows the event will occur, the speaker dooes think the
event will occur, and the event will not have a beneficial effect.
4. Sincerity Conditions: ​for a promise, the speaker genuinely intend to carry out the
future action, and, for a warning, the speaker genuinely believes that the future event
will not have a beneficial effect.
5. Essential Conditions:​ with a promise, the utterance changes the speaker’s state
from non-obligation to obligation (s/he intends to create an obligation to carry out the
action as promised). With a warning, the utterance changes the speaker’s state from
non-informing of a bad future event to informing.

The Performative Hypothesis

One way to think about the speech acts being performed via utterances is through the
performative hypothesis. This hypothesis assumes that underlying every utterance (U) there
us a clause, containing a performative verb (Vp) which makes the illocutionary force explicit.
The basic format of the underlying clause is:
 I (​hereby​) Vp you (that)... (U)

In this clause, the subject must be first person singular (“I”), followed by the verb “hereby”
which indicates that the utterance ‘counts as’ an action being uttered. There is also a Vp in
the present tense and an indirect object second person singular (“you”).

This underlying clause will always make explicit what in some utterances is implicit:
a. Clean up this mess! (Implicit)
b. I hereby order you that you clean up this mess. (Explicit)
Examples like ​b ​(normally without “hereby”) are used as ​Explicit Performatives.​ Examples
like ​a ​are ​Implicit Performatives ​(sometimes called ​Primary Performatives​).

Technical disadvantages

On the one hand, uttering the explicit performative version of a command has much more
serious impact than the implicit version. On the other hand, it is difficult to know exactly what
the performative verb (or verbs) might be for some utternaces; for example:
● The speaker and hearer might recognize ​“You’re dumber than a rock” ​as an insult,
however, it would be very strange to have ​“I hereby insult you that you’re dumber
​ s an explicit version.
than a rock” a

Thus the problem is that we don’t know how many performative verbs there are in any
language. Because of this, general classifications of types of speech acts are usually used.

Speech Acts Classification

One general classification system lists five types of general functions performed by speech
acts:

Declarations Representatives Expressives Directives Commissives

Definition Those kinds of Those kinds of Those kinds of Those kinds of Those kinds of
speech acts that speech acts that speech acts that speech acts that speech acts that
change the state what the state what the speakers use to speakers use to
world via their speaker believes speaker feels. get someone commit
utterance. to be the case or else to do themselves to
not something. some future
actions.

Characteristics The speaker has With them, the They express They express They express
to have a special speaker psychological what the speaker what the speaker
institutional role, represents the states and can wants; they are intends; they are
in a specific world as he/she be statements commands, promises, threats,
context. believes it is; they of pleasure, orders, requests, refusals, pledges.
are statements of pain, likes, suggestions, and They can be
fact, assertions, dislikes, joy, or can be positive performed by the
conclusions, and sorrow. They or negative. speaker alone or
descriptions. are about the by the speaker as
speaker's a member of a
experience. group.
Examples a. Priest: I now a. The earth is flat. a. I'm really a. Gomme a cup a. I'll be back.
pronounce you sorry! of coffee. Make it
husband and b. Chomsky didn't black. b. I'm going to get
wife. write about b. it right the next
peanuts. Congratulations! b. Could you time.
b. Referee: lend me a pen,
You're out! c. It was a warm c. Oh, yes, please? c. We will not do
sunny day. great, mmm, that.
c. Jury Foreman: ssahh! c. Don't touch
We find the that.
defendant guilty.

Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

A different approach to distinguishing types of speech acts can be made on the basis of
structure. In English, a simple structural distinction between three general types of speech
acts is provided by the three basic sentence types. There is an easily recognized
relationship between:

Examples:
a. You wear a seat belt. (Declarative)
b. Do you wear a seat belt? (Interrogative)
c. Wear a seat belt! (Imperative)

Direct Speech Act:​ there is a direct relationship between a structure and a function.
Indirect Speech Act:​ there is an indirect relationship between a structure and a function.

Example:​ a declarative used to make a request is a direct speech act, but a declarative used
to make a request is an indirect speech act.
Different structures can be used to accomplish the same basic function.
Example:​ the speaker wants the adressee not to stand in front of the TV. The basic function
of all the following utterances is a command/request, but only ​a ​represents a direct speech
act.
a. Move out of the way! (Imperative - Direct speech act)
b. Do you have to stand in front of the TV? (Interrogative - Indirect speech act)
c. You're standing in front of the TV. (Declarative - Indirect speech act)
d. You'd make a better door than a window. (Declarative - Indirect speech act)

Interrogatives

In English, one of the most common types of indirect speech act has the form of an
interrogative, but it is not typically used to ask a question (there is not only an answer
expected, but there is expected an action). This might be because indirect speech acts are
generally associated with greater politeness.
These examples are normally understood as requests:
a. Could you pass the salt?
b. Would you open this?

Speech Events

An indirect request can be treated as being a matter of asking whether the necessary
conditions for a request are in place:

a. Content Condition Future act of the hearer “Will you do X?”

(hearer WILL do X)

b. Preparatory Condition Hearer is able to perform act “Can you do X?”

(hearer CAN do X)

c. Questioning a hearer-based condition for making a request results in an indirect

request.

Because a request is an ​imposition​ by the speaker on the hearer, in most social

circumstances, it is better for the speaker to avoid a direct imposition (direct request). Thus,
a person tries to get another person to do something without risking refusal or causing
offense.
However, this type of situation doesn’t consist of a single utterance; it is a ​social situation
involving participants who have a social relationship of some kind, and who, on a specific
occasion, may have particular goals. The set of utterances produced in this kind of situation
can be said to be a ​Speech Event​.

A ​speech event​ is an activity in which participants interact via language in some

conventional way to arrive at some outcome. In most cases, a request is not made by
suddenly uttering a single speech act; ​requesting​ is typically a speech event.
Example:

Him: Oh, Mary, I'm glad you're here.

Her: What's up?
Him: I can't get my computer to work.
Her: Is it broken?
Him: I don't think so.
Her: What's it doing?
Him: I don't know. I'm useless with computers.
Her: What kind is it?
Him: It's a Mac. Do you use them?
Her: Yeah.
Him: Do you have a minute?
Her: Sure.
Him: Oh, great.

The above interaction may be called a ​requesting speech event without a central speech
act of request​, because there is no actual request from ‘him’ to ‘her’ to do anything. The
question “Do you have a minute?” might be a pre-request, in which the receiver is allowed to
say, perhaps, that she is busy. But, the response “Sure” is taken as a willingness to perform
the unstated action.

The analysis of speech event is, then, another way of studying how more gets
communicated than is actually said.