Speech Act Approach to

Discourse Analysis
Speech Act
 Socio-linguists have put forward the idea
(originally conceived by philosophers of
language – see Chapter 3) that all speech
can be seen as a variety of ‘social action’,
such as greeting, promise or declaration,
etc.
 Labov (1970) says that there are “rules of
interpretation which relate what is said to
what is done” and it is upon the
presupposition of these rules that any given
dialogue can be considered coherent or
incoherent.
 Example 1
Doctor: What’s your name?
Patient: Well let’s say you might have thought you
had something from before, but you haven’t got it
any more.
Doctor: I’m going to call you Dean.
 Example 2
A:That’s the telephone.
B: I’m in the bath.
A: OK.
 Widdowson (1978) argues that it is only by analyzing each
part of the dialogue and extracting the action which each is
performing within the dialogue, that it is possible to accept
this conversation as coherent.
 So we analyse the conversation in the following way:
A requests B to perform action (answer the phone).
B states reason why he cannot comply with request.
A undertakes to perform action (or at least accepts
non-compliance).
 Here we begin to perceive how conversations can be
analyzed as a series of transactions and conversational moves
within a contextual structure.
How Do People Recognize Speech
Acts in Discourse?
 We can generally5 infer the speech act from the following three
properties:
1. Locutionary Act
The content of the utterance: That is to say the proposition
expressed by the utterance. Defining what that is not always easy. If I
say “Shut the door” I mean “Bring it about that, by some (future)
action, the proposition ‘The door is shut’ becomes true in the
context of the physical world”. Of course we also use background
knowledge and knowledge of the speaker to deduce the content of
an utterance. I assume for simplicity’s sake that this is possible to do
– although not necessarily unambiguously so.
2. Illocutionary Act
The pragmatic 'illocutionary force' of the utterance, thus its
intended significance as a socially valid verbal action
3. Perlocutionary Act
The position of the utterance within a conversation. Its actual effect,
such as persuading, convincing, scaring, enlightening, inspiring, or
otherwise getting someone to do or realize something, whether
intended or not (Austin 1962)
 Illocutionary Act
Searle (1975) has set up the following classification of
illocutionary speech acts:
 Assertives = speech acts that commit a speaker to believing
the expressed proposition, e.g. reciting a creed
 Directives = speech acts that are to cause the hearer to
take a particular action, e.g. requests, commands and advice
 Commissives = speech acts that commit a speaker to
doing some future action, e.g. promises and oaths
 Expressives = speech acts that express the speaker's
attitudes and emotions towards the proposition, e.g.
congratulations, excuses and thanks
 Declarations = speech acts that change the social sphere in
accord with the proposition of the declaration, e.g. baptisms
or pronouncing someone husband and wife
Assertives
 They are representations of reality. An
assertive is a speech act that commits the
speaker to the truth of a proposition.
Assertives are either true or false. Assertives
refer to statements, descriptions,
classifications, explanations, and clarifications.
 Example:
◦ "Socrates is bald“
◦ "2+2=4“
◦ "All men are mortal“
◦ "Barack Obama is the president of the United
States".
Directives
 Attempts by the speaker to try to get the
hearer to do something. Correct uses of
directives must always refer to future
voluntary acts. Directives include orders,
commands, requests and refer to pleading,
begging, praying, insisting, and suggesting.
 Examples:
◦ "Please bless my family“
◦ “Go to your room“
◦ "Pass the salt“
◦ "vote for me".
Commissives
 Commit a speaker to some future voluntary action.
Commissives reveal the intention of the speaker.
Commissives refer to vows, threats, pledges,
guarantees, contracts, promises, covenants, and oaths.
An offer is also a commissive but it only commits the
speaker to some action upon the condition of the
offer being accepted.
 Examples:
◦ "I now covenant with thee"
◦ " I promise to exercise every day“
◦ "I solemnly swear to tell the truth“
◦ " I'll be there at 10 o'clock“
◦ "I'll give you 5 dollars for the watch"
Expressives
 It reveals the speaker's attitudes and
emotions towards a particular proposition.
Expressives include thanking, apologizing,
congratulating, and welcoming.
 Examples:
◦ "Thank you for giving me the money“
◦ "congratulations on marrying a libertarian“
◦ " I apologize for stepping on your face".
◦ Other types of expressives use the subjunctive or
optative mood such as
 "would that the politicians were more righteous"
 "if only it rained more often."
Declarations
 Declarations are the most interesting type of
speech act.
 Declarations are utterances that change the
world by representing it as being so changed.
 A rough test to see if something is a declaration
is if you can add the word "hereby" in front of it
as in "I hereby declare war on your country."
 Examples of declarations include
◦ "the meeting is adjourned“
◦ "I now pronounce you husband and wife“
◦ "This note is legal tender for all debts public and private".
◦ Declarations have a double direction of fit.