SPEECH ACTS

of J.L. Austin(1962) and

J.R. Searle (1969)

Speech act theory attempts to explain how speakers use

language to accomplish intended actions and how hearers
infer intended meaning from what is said.  
• In response to the philosophy of “ideal language” of Bertrand Russell.

• No matter how deficient or defective language might be, it serves

ordinary people perfectly well.

• “ordinary language philosophers”

• CONSTATIVES – e.g. He goes there everyday. I’m a student.

• PERFORMATIVES – e.g. I bet you 1M. I name the child John.
• Austin argued that people use the language not only to say things,
but also to do things.

Categories of Performative Verbs

1. metalinguistic – say, protest, declare, etc.
2. ritual – name, baptize, pronounce, absolve, sentence, etc.
3. collaborative – bet, challenge, bequeath, etc.

• Austin termed the utterances that can perform actions, SPEECH

ACTS.
Three Levels of Speech Acts
1. Locutionary act – consisting of the actual words uttered, with their
sense of reference
• saying something (the locution) with a certain meaning in
traditional sense. This may not constitute a speech act.

2. Illocutionary act – the action performed by the speaker by uttering

those words
• the performance of an act in saying something (vs. the
general act of saying something). 
The illocutionary force is the speaker's intent. A true 'speech
act'. 
e.g. informing, ordering, warning, undertaking.
3. Perlocutionary act – what is achieved by virtue of
the force of utterance, their real-world effect of the
utterance

• Speech acts that have an effect on the feelings,

thoughts or actions of either the speaker or the
listener. In other words, they seek to change minds!
• Unlike locutionary acts, perlocutionary acts are
external to the performance.
• e.g., inspiring, persuading or deterring.
• Based on Austin's (1962), and Searle's (1969) theory, Cohen ( 1996)
identifies five categories of speech acts based on the functions
assigned to them.
Classification of Speech Acts

Representatives Directives Expressives Comissives Declaratives

assertions   suggestions apologies promises decrees

claims requests complaints threats declarations

reports   commands thanks offers

• Assertives: statements may be judged true or
false because they aim to describe a state of
affairs in the world.
• Directives: statements attempt to make the
other person's actions fit the propositional
content.
• Commissives: statements which commit the
speaker to a course of action as described by
the propositional content.
• Expressives: statements that express the
“sincerity condition of the speech act”.
• Declaratives: statements that attempt
to change the world by “representing it as
having been changed”.
GRICE’S COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE(1975)
The Cooperative Principle
• Proposed by philosopher Paul Grice whereby those involved in
communication assume that both parties will normally seek to
cooperate with each other to establish agreed meaning.

• Guidelines = a general cooperative principle + four maxims of

conversation

Speak cooperate construct

MEANINGFUL CONVERSATION
Cooperative Principle and its
Four Maxims

• “Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the

stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the
talk exchange in which you are engaged”.
by H. P. Grice’s “Logic and Conversation” (1975):

• 1. Maxim of Quality
• 2. Maxim of Quantity
• 3. Maxim of Relation
• 4. Maxim of Manner
The Maxim of Quality
• Do not say what you believe to be false
• Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

The Basic Idea

• requires information provided in the conversation to be genuine and
justified

• Authenticity of information
The Maxim of Quantity
• Make your contribution as informative as is required for the current
purposes of exchange.
• Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

The Basic Idea

• Relates to the amount of information provided in conversation.
The Maxim of Relevance
• Make your contribution relevant.
The Maxim of Manner

• Be perspicuous, and specifically:

(i) Avoid obscurity
(ii) Avoid ambiguity
(iii) Be brief
(iv) Be orderly
 References

Austin’s Speech Act Theory and Speech Situation by Etsuko Oishi

(2006)

Meaning and Communication : From Semantic Meaning to Pragmatic

Meaning by Adriana Vizental (2009)