Discourse analysis session 8_23_11_2021 Speech acts.pdf
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This document discusses speech acts and discourse analysis. It provides definitions and examples of speech acts, including locutionary acts (the literal meaning of words), illocutionary acts (the speaker's intention), and perlocutionary acts (the effect on the listener). Speech acts can be direct, expressing exactly what is intended, or indirect, implying a request through a question rather than a direct command. Examples are provided of common speech acts like greetings, requests, complaints, and invitations. The document also discusses John Austin's and John Searle's influential works on speech acts and how they have shaped the field of pragmatics and discourse analysis.
Discourse analysis session 8_23_11_2021 Speech acts.pdf
- 1. Department of English Language and Literature Major: English Language and Literature Discourse Analysis Sessions 8 Pragmatics and speech acts Dr. Badriya Al Mamari Academic year 2021/2022
- 2. Speech acts and discourse • Two influential works in the area of pragmatics relevant to the area of discourse analysis are Austin’s ( 1962 ) How to Do Things With Words and Searle’s ( 1969 ) Speech Acts .
- 3. A speech act In linguistics, a speech act is an utterance defined in terms of a speaker's intention and the effect it has on a listener. Essentially, it is the action that the speaker hopes to provoke in his or her audience.
- 4. Speech Acts: Speech Act is an action performed in saying something. A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication. We perform speech acts when we offer an apology, greeting, request, complaint, invitation, compliment, or refusal or any number of declarations A speech act might contain just one word, as in "Sorry!" to perform an apology, or several words or sentences: "I’m sorry I forgot your birthday. I just let it slip my mind."
- 5. Speech acts include real-life interactions and require not only knowledge of the language but also appropriate use of that language within a given culture. Here are some examples of speech acts we use or hear every day: Greeting: "Hi, Eric. How are things going?“ Request: "Could you pass me the salt, please?“ Complaint: "I’ve already been waiting three weeks for the computer, and I was told it would be delivered within a week.“ Invitation: "We’re having some people over Saturday evening and wanted to know if you’d like to join us.“ Compliment: "Hey, I really like your scarf!“ Refusal: "Oh, I’d love to see that movie with you, but this Friday just isn’t going to work."
- 6. Austin (1962) suggested three kinds of acts; • 1.The locutionary act refers to the literal meaning of the actual words (such as ‘It’s hot in here’ referring to the temperature). • 2.The illocutionary act refers to the speaker’s intention in uttering the words (such as a request for someone to turn on the air conditioning). • 3.The perlocutionary act refers to the effect this utterance has on the thoughts or actions of the other person (such as someone getting up and turning on the air conditioning).
- 7. Speech act theory broadly explains these utterances: 1.Locutionary act : saying something (the locution) with a certain meaning in traditional sense. Two types of locutionary act : a)utterance acts : where something is said (or a sound is made) and which may not have any meaning , Example : Oh! - is an utterance (communication is not intended - it is just a sound caused by surprise b)propositional acts : where a particular reference is made. Example: ”The black cat ” (something is referenced, but no communication may be intended
- 8. 2.lllocutionary acts: are the real actions which are performed by the utterance, where saying equals doing, as in betting, believe , dare, warning. etc . 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’, such as “informing, ordering, warning, undertaking”. Example:”I promise to pay you back”- is an illocutionary act (it intends to communicate.
- 9. 3.Perlocutionary acts: 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! such as persuading, convincing, scaring, enlightening, inspiring, or otherwise getting someone to do or realize something.
- 10. As an example, consider the following utterance: "By the way, I have a CD of Titanic; would you like to borrow it?" Its illocutionary function is an offer, while its intended perlocutionary effect might be to impress the listener, or to show a friendly attitude, or to encourage an interest in a particular type of movie, music…etc.
- 11. • Example 1: Bus driver: “This bus won’t move until you boys move in out of the doorway.” • The locutionary act: is the driver saying he won’t start the bus with people standing in the doorway. • The illocutionary act: is an order. • The perlocutionary act: is the boys moving inside the bus.
- 12. • Example 2: What are you doing tonight?’ 1.This statement might be both a question and an invitation. A person might reply ‘I still haven’t finished my homework’ treating the utterance as both a question and invitation which they decide not to accept. 2.They may equally reply ‘Nothing special. What do you feel like doing?’ providing an answer to the question but this time accepting the (as yet unspoken) invitation.
- 13. Direct speech acts When the semantic meaning of a sentence is the same as what the speaker intended to convey, it is described as a direct speech act. For example, when a speaker doesn't know something and asks the hearer to provide the information, he or she will typically produce a direct speech act of the following type: Can you ride a bicycle ?
- 14. Structures and their Functions Structures Functions Did you eat the pizza?........................ Interrogative (Question) Eat the pizza (please)! ……………....Imperative Command (Request) You ate the pizza. …………..… Declarative Statement (declaration/advertising)
- 15. •Indirect Speech act • “Can you pass the salt ? • In this example, you would not usually understand the utterance as a question about your ability to do something. In fact, you would not treat this as a question at all. You would treat it as a request and perform the action requested. • We are not really asking a question about someone’s ability. In fact, we don’t normally use this structure as a question at all. We normally use it to make a request. That is, we are using a syntactic structure associated with the function of a question, but in this case with the function of a request. This is an example of an indirect speech act.
- 16. • It is possible to have strange effects if one person fails to recognize another person’s indirect speech act. Example: Consider the following scene. A visitor to a city, carrying his luggage, looking lost, stops a passer-by. • A: Excuse me. Do you know where the Hilton Hotel is? • B: Oh sure, I know where it is. (and walks away)
- 17. The main reason we use indirect speech acts seems to be that actions such as requests presented in an indirect way (Could you open that door for me?) are generally considered to be more gentle or more polite in our society than direct speech acts (Open that door for me!). Exactly why they are considered to be more polite is based on some complex social assumptions.
- 18. Reference • Paltridge, B. (2021). Discourse analysis: An introduction. Bloomsbury Publishing.