“Speech act theory”’ I oveeronteem ny Shabana perveen Roll no 28 Sajid Saleem Roll no o2 MPhil linguistic 1 semester (University) Institute of southern Punjab Multan—— What is a speech act theory? e Attempts to explain how speakers use language to accomplish intended actions and how listeners determine and intended meaning from what is said. © Isa subfield of pragmatics concerned with the ways in with words can be used to not only to present information but also to carryout actions. © This was purposed by J.L. Austin(1962) from the book ‘How to Do things with Words ‘and it was supplemented by American philosopher John R Searle.- = ase SPEECH ACTS: DOING THINGS WITH LANGUAGE ° John Austin in his book "How to do things with words’ is the first to introduce the idea of Speech Acts, analyzing the relationships between utterances and performance.rr History ° Impressive success of Chomsky’s classic works made difficulty for the philosophers of language who were intended in semantics rather than syntactic aspects. ° Philosophers of language like Richard Montague and his school of thoughts join hands with the formal syntactic traditions and semantic orientation a called intentional semantic. © More contribution was made by J.L.Austin in the branch of philosophy referred to as ‘ordinary language philosophy’.— J.L Austin(1911-60 Major contribution to contemporary philosophy i) Linguist Phenomenology. 2) Speech act theory. 3) Epistemology and philosophy of action in utterancese Developed new philosophical methodology and style which became paradigmatic of ‘Ordinary language philosophy’ © does not claim it as correct method but to remove philosophical mistake ‘Philosophical mistakes’, For Instance ° ‘It cold outside’. (Proposition) ° ‘Good luck’. ? ° ‘Congratulations. ? © ‘Well done’?ZZ Language in use ° Assumptions about Human Language ‘Sound and meaning ’(Descriptive Grammar) ‘Set of correct sentences (Generative Grammar) But The basic or minimal unit of linguistic communication which has generally been supposed “The symbol’ Word or sentence....but rather the production or word or sentence in the ‘performance of speech act’.© People use language with communicative intentions. Speech acts are acts of communication that express those intentions. All speech's situated speech; a speech act is never just an ‘act of speech’ but should be considered in the total situation activity of which it isa part. Levinson(1979)e We will have to ask ourselves how speech acts relate to our human activity as a whole: thinking ‘globally’ while acting ‘locally’,How speech acts function © Speech acts are verbal actions happening in the world For Instance If I say to a new born human; I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the ‘Holy Ghost’ then this human being is from now on and forever a Christian.Speech act theory e Aspeech act can be divided into three different smaller acts: ¢ Locutionary act e [locutionary act © Perlocutionary actThe locutionary act © The act of performing words into utterances that make sense in a language with correct grammar and pronunciation.. Locution: A form of expression; a phrase, an expression Excerpted from Oxford Talking Dictionary. 1998 For instance: ‘Its cold in here’The illocutionary act e Intended communicative action by the speaker, bound to certain conventions (the illocutionary act can only be achieved if there is a convention in society that makes it possible) Illocution: An action performed by saying or writing something, e.g. ordering, warning, promising Excerpted from Oxford Talking Dictionary. 1998 For instance: John says to marry, “pass me the glasses please”.(order or request)The Perlocutionary act ° The effect that an utterance has on the thoughts, feelings or attitudes of the listener. Perlocution: An act of speaking or writing which aims to effect an action but which in itself does not effect or constitute the action, as persuading, convincing. Excerpted from Oxford Talking Dictionary. 1998.= ften the same utterance can have different illocutionary force (intended function) in different contexts. Example: I'll see you later I predict that Ill see you later I warn you that I'll see you later I promise you that I'll see you laterFunctions of SA © What we say (locution) What we mean when we say(Illucation) ° What we accomplish by saying it(Perlocution)a FELICITY CONDITIONS ° The context and the situation that allow us to recognize a speech act as intended by the speaker. ¢ The conditions that must be fulfilled fora speech act to be satisfactorily performed or realized e Asentence must not only be grammatically correct, it must also be felicitous , that is situational appropriate.For instance “T here by pronounce this person dead” In correct circumstances (Appropriate) In other circumstance, (Speech misfire)Types of Felicity Conditions © There are several types of felicitous conditions: Propositional content, which requires participants to understand language, not to act like actors Preparatory, where the authority of the speaker and the circumstances of the speech act are appropriate to its being performed successfully Sincerity, where the speech act is being performed seriously and sincerely Essential, where the speaker intends that an utterance be acted upon by the addresseeFor example © Patrick Colm Hogan, in "Philosophical roaches to the Study of Literature," describes felicity conditions with this example: © "Suppose I am ina play and deliver the line 'I promise to kill the evil Don Fernando.' I have not, in fact, promised to kill anyone. ...Speech act of promising ‘I promise’ (Speech act verb) (Can lead to misunderstanding)Speech act of promising Depends on social frame For instance: “wilt thou have this woman for thy wife?” °There is a policeman at the corner” “T will be there at 7”peech act’s physiognomy: Promising e How can we determine a speech act? © How many speech act are there, and how are they expressed in language? * What is the relationship between a speech act and a pragmatic act? e Are there speech acts (or pragmatics act) that are found across languages , or even are in all languages? (The problem of the so-called ‘universal speech acts’)Promises: Conditions © Condition 1) Normal condition must obtain for uttering and receiving a promise. ° Condition 2) The promise must have a content. (I promise I'll be there tomorrow)—— Promises: Conditions * Condition 3) A promise must have to do with a future, possible action of the speaker. (I’m coming to Lahore tomorrow). ° Condition 4&5) condition 4&5 are often called(in accordance with Searle's terminology) preparatory conditions, that is, condition that must have been met before we can begin to talk about promises. If you don’t behave, I promise you there’s going to be trouble. I can promise anybody that sun will rise tomorrowPromises °A happily married man who promises his wife he will not desert her in the next week is likely to provide more anxiety than comfort”.Promises: Conditions © Condition 6) This condition has to do with the sincerity of the promiser in carrying out the act of promising.(Sincerity condition) ° Condition 7) A promise intends to put herself or himself under the obligation of carrying out the promised act.(Essential Condition)_— Promises: Conditions ° Condition 8&g) These condition emphasize that the language use in promising must be the normal one, semantically and pragmatically correct. °For Pennsylvanian, taking oaths are forbidden’.(Culture) °Never trust a drunks promises”. (Wisdom) “Promises to wives and children don’t count”. It is Society that determines the validityee Rule 1 to 4 Content happen in futur Content Preparatory Regulative Intention(sincerity) Rules Rule 5 gin =: Constitutive RulePERFORMATIVE VERBS + / assert that | the Prime Minister is out of the country. * | ask | when and where is the lecture? * | order you to | stand up. * | request that you | carry my bags. */ warn you that if you | do that again, and I'll send you to your room, * | warn you that | there's a spider on your shoulder. + | bet you | fifty dollars that New Zealand will beat Australia in the Rugby World Cup. * | advise you to | go to the lectures every week. These sentences have verbs that state the speech act. These sentences are explicit performatives. These verbs are called performative verbs. These verbs can be used to perform the acts they name.John Searle An American Philosopher Doctorate in philosophy in 1959 Major Contributions: The Philosophy of Language The Philosophy of Mind The proponent and defender of J Austin’s Speech act theorySearle contribution to Speech Act Set of rules that identify the conditions that sincerity and non defectively performing an act of that kind * indirect speech act ¢ insight into fundamental issues (distinguish between speaker meaning and conventional meaning) e The nature of reference and prediction ¢ The division between sematic and pragmatic aspect of communicated meanings © Scope of linguist knowledgearle’s five illocutionary points eet tere y fate cL Representative words-to-world belief (speaker) Directives world-to-words desire (addressee) Commissives world-to-words intention (speaker) Expressives none variable (speaker) Declarations both none (speaker) Examples: Match the examples to correct category: Expressive: “Wow, great! Commissives: “I'll be back in five minutes.“ Representative: “Chinese characters were borrowed to write other languages, notably Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.” Declarations: Jury foreman: “We find the defendant not guilty.” Directives: “Turn the TV down."Criticism on SA e Austin essays is not based on a definite set of basic dimensions- resulted in inconsistent and overlapping classification of an SA © Unsystematic identification of unspoken presupposition, implications and effects of speech act in discourse analysis in literary criticism © Overlapping of speech act performance with theoretical and empirical and methodological issues ° Hearer place a passive thus interactional aspect are neglected