Speech act and speech event
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Speech acts are functional units of communication that speakers perform through utterances. There are three types of meaning conveyed: propositional meaning of the literal words, illocutionary meaning of the intention, and perlocutionary force of the effect on the listener. Speech acts can be categorized as representatives, directives, commissives, expressives, or declarations depending on the intention. Analyzing speech acts and speech events provides insight into the functions and social contexts of language use.
Speech act and speech event
- 1. Definition of speech acts • A speech act is a functional unit in communication (Cohen, A.D.) • It’s an act that a speaker performs when making an utterance According to Austin’s theory of speech acts (1962), utterances have three kinds of meaning. 1. Propositional/locutionary: literal meaning of an utterance 2. Illocutionary meaning: particular intention in making the utterance 3. Perlocutionary force: production of a particular effect in the addressee
- 2. Speech acts categories: • Representatives: speakers assert a proposition to be true, using such verbs as: affirm, believe, conclude, deny, report. • Directives: speaker try to make the hearer do something, with such words as: ask, beg, challenge, command, dare, invite, insist, request. • Commissives: the speaker commits himself (or herself) to a (future) course of action, with verbs such as: guarantee, pledge, promise, swear, vow, undertake, warrant. • Expressives: the speaker expresses an attitude to or about a state of affairs, using such verbs as: apologize, appreciate, congratulate, deplore, detest, regret, thank, welcome. • Declarations speakers alter the external status or condition of an object or situation, solely by making the utterance: I now pronounce you man and wife, I sentence you to be hanged by the neck until you be dead, I name this ship...
- 3. SPEECH ACT FUNCTIONS and SUBFUNCTIONS by Van Ek 1. Imparting/seeking factual information such as identify, ask, report and say 2. Express/discover intellectual attitudes: state whether you/ ask if others. Such as agree or disagree, know or don’t know remember or forgot, etc. 3. Express/inquire about emotional attitudes: express your own question others’. Such as interest or lack of interest, surprise, hope, fears or worry, etc.
- 4. Continue… 4. express/question moral attitudes: express or request. Such as apology or forgiveness, appreciation, regret, etc. 5. Suasion is an advice or warn someone to or not do something. Such as suggest, request, invite and instruct. 6. Socializing refers to daily social activity or the relation of the people. Example greet, introduce, congratulate, etc.
- 5. Speech act functions by Halliday 1. Instrumental, the function that serves our wants or needs. Example, “I want”, “I need”. 2. Regulatory, the function that lets us control actions. Example, “do this”. 3. Interactional. The vocatives and other signals that get attention and allow us to interact with others.
- 6. Continue… 4. Personal. The ways we express our individual personalities through language. 5. Heuristic. The “teach me” or “tell me why” function that helps us build our own worlds. 6. Imaginative. The “let’s pretend” function that helps us build our own worlds. 7. informative. The function that lets us share information with others.
- 7. Speech act analysis Provided researches with a valuable way to look at language function and connection between function and grammar forms. A number of problems remain in applying it to language analysis. First, it is difficult to impute the function speakers intend for utterances (especially if one has recource only to an utterance out of context)
- 8. Continue… Second, it is not clear how the subcategories relate to one another. Third, like the second, has to do with system. If the analysis is at the utterance level, how can it help us to understand the structure of discourse.
- 9. • Speech events: an activity in which participants interact via language in some conventional way to arrive at some outcome A “requesting” speech event
- 10. Compliments Compliments as speech acts are classified as expressive-expressions of like or dislike. The speech event of compliment, on the other hand includes not just the speech act but also the entire compliment interaction
- 11. Complaints Strategies combination Remarks Indirect complaint •It’s ok. Don’t worry about it. •It’s ok. Accidents happen. •It’s ok. It’s not like you meant to do it. Request for repair •Do/ Don’t do X •Can (Could) I/you X… •I’d like to X… •I was wondering if I/you can (could) X…
- 12. Advice An analysis of advice speech events shows that a template or script is easily discernible. For example, a set of components for seeking and giving advice.
- 13. SPEECH EVENTS ANALYSIS are concerned with how speech act functional realized in large text units. the structure of the event forms a template similar to those of script ( however , the script is directed toward an indentified speech function)
- 14. script theory attempts to build an abstract representation to memory. Work in artificial intelligence on natural languages is based on this analysis. speech event analysis attempts to build an abstract representation by identifying components, but it is sociolinguistic in nature. ( in sociolinguistic, speech event analysis would include a description of the speech setting, the participants, and the structure of the event set in a template sequence.)