SPEECH ACTS

• A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication.

• Actions performed via utterences are generally called speech acts.
• Speech acts include functions such as: requests, apologies, suggestions, commands, offers
and appropriate responses to those acts.

Types of speech act

1. Locutionary Act: Producing a meaningful linguistic expression.
2. Illocutionary Act: Intentional utterance, what the speaker tries to convey with the words.
3. Perlocutionary Act: The effect of the meaningful, intentional utterance on the hearer. The
intended effect.
Example: What happens when you hear the question, would you close the door?

Locution: Intention
The door is open.

Illocution: Meaning
Close the door.

Perlocution: Effect on the hearer.

It could be too noisy therefore I have to close the door.

Felicity(appropriacy) conditions
• General conditions: Presuppose that participants knowledge of the language being
used.
• Content conditions: Concern the appropriate content of an utterance. Promise or
warning must refer to a future event.
• Preparatory conditions: Deal with differences of illocutionary acts (e.g. those of
promising or warning) / specific requirements need to be fulfilled for success.
• Sincerity conditions: Count with speaker’s intention to carry out a certain act.
• Essential conditions: Combine with a specific at what must be in the utterance
context and the speaker’s intentions, in order for a specific act to be appropriately
performed. / the utterance commits the speakers acts an obligation.

Performative Hypothesis
It is a speech act that is performed via utterance is to assume that underlying every
utterance. There is a clause, containing a performative verb.
 Explicit & Implicit(primary) performatives.
1. a) The work was done by Dalia and myself.
b) I hereby tell you that the work was done by Dalia and myself.

2. a) Clean up this mess!

b) I hereby order you that you clean up this mess.

Examples like 1a and 2a are implicit performatives.

Examples like 1b and 2b are explicit performatives -or primary performatives.-

Note:

Implicit is something that is implied, expressed directly but still understood because it is suggested
by the choice of words, the tone of voice.

Explicit is something that is stated directly and fully, with no room left for implications.

SPEECH ACT CLASSIFICATIONS

One general classification system lists five types of general functions performed by speech acts:
declarations, representatives, expressives, directives, and commissives.

Declarations are those kinds of speech acts that change the world via their utterance. As the
examples in illustrate, the speaker has to have a special institutional role, in a specific context, in
order to perform a declaration appropriately.

Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife.

Referee: You're out!

Jury Foreman: We find the defendant guilty.

In using a declaration, the speaker changes the world via words. (İLAN ETMEK,AÇIKLAMAK)

Representatives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the case or
not. Statements of fact, assertions, conclusions, and descriptions, as illustrated in ,are all examples of
the speaker representing the world as he or she believes it is.

a. The earth is flat.

b. Chomsky didn't write about peanuts.

c. It was a warm sunny day

In using a representative, the speaker makes words fit the world (of belief).(GENEL GERÇEKLER)
Expressives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker feels. They express
psychological states and can be statements of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy, or sorrow. As
illustrated in [17], they can be caused by something the speaker does or the hearer does, but they
are about the speaker's experience.

a. I'm really sorry!

b. Congratulations!

c Oh, yes, great, mmmm, ssahh!

In using an expressive, the speaker makes words fit the world (of feeling).(DUYGULARIN İFADE
EDİLİŞİ)

Directives are those kinds of speech acts that speakers use to get someone else to do something.
They express what the speaker wants. They are commands, orders, requests, suggestions, and, as
illustrated in, they can be positive or negative.

a. Gimme a cup of coffee. Make it black.

b. Could you lend me a pen, please?

c. Don't touch that.

In using a directive, the speaker attempts to make the world fit the words (via the hearer). (EMİR
CÜMLELERİ)

Commissives are those kinds of speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves to some future
action. They express what the speaker intends. They are promises, threats, refusals, pledges, and, as
shown in, they can be performed by the speaker alone, or by the speaker as a member of a group.

a. I'll be back.

b. I'm going to get it right next time.

c. We will not do that.

In using a commissive, the speaker undertakes to make the world fit the words (via the
speaker).(SÖZLER,REDDETMELER,VERİLEN SÖZLER)

Direct and Indirect Speech acts

A different approach to distinguishing types of speech acts can be made on the basis of structure. A
fairly simple structural distinction between three general types of speech acts is provided, in English,
by the three basic sentence types. As shown in, there is an easily recognized relationship between
the three structural forms (declarative, interrogative, imperative) and the three general
communicative functions (statement, question, command/request).

a. You wear a seat belt. (declarative)

b. Do you wear a seat belt? (interrogative)

c. Wear a seat belt! (imperative)

One of the most common types of indirect speech act in - English, as shown in, has the form of an
interrogative, but isnot typically used to ask a question (i.e. we don't expect only ananswer, we
expect action). The examples in are normally understood as requests.

a. Could you pass the salt?( Indirective)

b. Would you open this?

Note: Indirect speech acts are generally associated with greater politeness in English than direct
speech acts. In order to understand why, we have to look at a bigger picture than just a single
utterance performing a single speech act.
Adjacency Pairs

There is relation between acts and that conversation contains frequently occurring patterns.

Examples of Pairs

Answer Question
Offer Accaptence
Blame Deny
Complaint Excuse Remedy

Greetings (A) Greetings(B)

Hello Hi
How are you? Fine
See you Bye…

Preference Structures

It is divided into to 2 parts. Preferred and dispreffered social acts.

The preferred: is structurally expected next acts.

The dispreffered: is structurally unexpected next act.

Note: Adjacency pairs represent social actions and not all social actions are equal when they occur as
second parts at the same time.

Ex: a first part request excepts on acceptance

• Acceptance is more likely than refusal

• Structural likelihood I called preference
• Preference structure divides second parts into preferences and dis-preferred.
Ex:
First Part : Would you like to come over for dinner tonight?
Second Part: Yes, that sounds lovely!(Preferred Social acts.)
No, not really. (dis-preferred Social acts.)

Silence is indicator of a dis-preferred social act.

Other Indicators: hm….,oh…..,um…..,eh…..,well…..

NOTE: We use more language for dis-preferred social acts.

We use less language for preferred language acts.

Discourse and Culture

In Discourse Analysis : You talk about three different functions.

Interpersonal Function: Deals with personal interactions.

Textual Function: Deals with what makes a text well-formed.

Ideational Function: Deals with thoughts and experience.

Discourse Analysis: is the study of how sentences in spoken and written language form larger
meaningful units such as paragraphs, conversations, interviews.

-Discourse analysis deals with how choice of articles, pronouns and tenses affects the structure of
discourse

-Political discourse

-Educational Discourse

COHORENCE

It is people who make sense of what they hear and revel by creating meaningful connections which
are not actually expressed by the words and sentences. A lot of what is meant is not actually present
in what react or heard.

Ex: Garage Sales means discount sales, doesn’t mean that person is selling his garage.

BACKWORD KNOWLEDGE

Automatic interpretations are based on pre-existing. Familiar patterns from previous experiences
used to interpret new experiences.

• A pre-existing knowledge structure in memory

• Fixed, static pattern
• A frame shared by everyone in a social group is:

Apartment for rent : 500 $

Apartment for rent Advertisement frame. 500$ per month not per year or per week.
CULTUREL SCHEMATA

Background knowledge structures for making sense of the works are culturally determined.

Ex: Australian factory supervisor assumes that workers know that easter is close and hence
everyone will have holiday. He asked a Vietnamese

- You have five days off. What are you going to do?

The Vietnamese worker immediately interpreted the utterance in terms of being laid off (rather
than having a holiday). Something good in one person's schema can sound like something bad in
another's.

Cross-cultural pragmatics

The study of differences in expectations based on cultural schemata is part of a broad area of
investigation generally known as cross-cultural pragmatics.

The concepts and terminology may provide a basic analytic framework, but the realization of
those concepts may differ substantially from the English language examples presented here.

For example: Cooperative principle(different quantity or quality maxims) different turn-taking

mechanism in different cultures different interpretations of speech acts.

For example: American way of complimenting creates embarrassment for native Indians
(perceive as excessive) or perceived by Japanese listeners as impossible to accept.
SPEECH EVENTS
A speech event is an activity in which participants interact via language in some conventional way to
arrive at some outcome.

For example; exchanging greetings, telling jokes, giving speeches

A speech event can be defined by a unified set of components throughout,

• Same purpose of communication

• Same topic
• Same participants
• Same language variety

POLITENESS & INTERACTION

Politeness; the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face.

Face: the public self-image of a person

Politeness associated and marked linguistically with the assumption of relative social distance and
closeness.

Face Wants: people’s expectation concerning their public self-image.

Face threatening acts: speaker says something that represents a threat to another individual’s
expectations regarding self-image.

Face saving act: speaker says something to lesson a possible threat or to maintaining a good self-
image.

Ex/ situation: your neighbour is playing bud music late at night

A: I’m going to tell him to stop that awful music right now! (Face threatening act)
B: perhaps you could just ask him if he’s going to stoop soon, because it’s getting a bit late and
people need to get to sleep (face saving act)

POLITENESS STRATEGIES
Negative and Positive faces & off and on Record.

Negative Face: the need of to be independent, freedom of action and free of other’s imposition
(negative politeness)

Positive Face: the need to be accepted, even to be liked by others, to be treated as a member of the
same group, and to know his or her wants are shared by others(to be connected) (positive
politeness)

Off-Record (indirect politeness): is like trying to hint or avoid saying your opinion straight forward
(vague, unclear or indistinct)
Ex / the movie is boring (let’s leave)
I forgot my pen. (I need a pen)
On- Record (direct politeness): if the speaker directly addresses the other as a mean of expressing
the speaker needs, it means the speaker uses the on record technique.

Ex / Give me a pen.
Lend me your eraser
Mitigating Devices: used to soften the demand.

- Would you …
- Please …
- Could you …

Negative politeness -> deference strategy: emphasizes the non-personal: Formal politeness

Positive Politeness -> solidarity strategy: emphasizes closeness to addressee. Involves personal
information, first names, and nicknames (we, let’s dialect …)

PRE SEQUENCES
Pre-request:
Her: Are you busy? (Pre-request)
Him: not really. (Go-ahead)
Her: check over this memo (Request)
Him: okay. (Accept)

Pre-invitation:
Him: what are you doing this Friday? (Pre-invitation)
Her: Hmm, nothing so far. (Go-ahead)
Him: come over for dinner (Invitation)
Her: Ok, I’d like that. (Accept)

Pre-Announcement
Child: mom, guess what happened? (Pre-announcement)
Mother: (silence)
Child: mom, you know what? (Pre-announcement)
Mother: nothing right now, Jacy, I’m busy. (Stop)

CONVERSATION ANALYSIS
Conversational Analysis in Pragmatics: the term, conversational analysis is used to mean the
investigation into and analysis of natural conversation so as to reveal what linguistic features of
conversation is and how conversation is used in ordinary life.
Specific words used in conversation analysis

Turn-taking is a term for the manner in which conversation normally takes place (one after another)

Ex /
A: Hello
B: Hi
C: How are you?
D: I’m fine, thanks
A turn is the time when a speaker is talking and turn-taking is the skill of knowing when to start and
finish a turn in a conversation.
Floor is the right to speak
Turn is, having control of this floor at any time.

Local management system (LMS) is set of conversations for getting, keeping and giving away turns
(smooth transitions through intonation, pauses or overlaps)
Transition Relevance Place (TRP) any possible change of turn point
Attributable Silence is if one speaker actually turns over the floor to another and the other does not
speak.

Pauses, overlaps and backchannels

Pauses are, silence between turns. Pauses can be simple hesitations or silences.
Overlaps are both speakers trying to speak at the same time
Backchannels: are ways of indicating we are listening
(Head nods, gestures, smiles, other facial expressions)

Conversational Style (turn-taking)

There are individual and cultural differences in conversational style/ turn-taking
High-Involvement style(turn-taking) some individuals expect that participation in a conversation will
be very active, that speaking rate will be fast, with almost no pausing between turns, and with some
overlap or even competitions between turns (Tıpkı Türkler gibi)
High considerateness style (turn-taking) speakers use a slower rate, expect longer pauses between
turns, do not overlap, and avoid interruption or completion of the other's turn. (Avrupa usulü)