Speech Act Communicative Strategy

Three Types of Speech Acts
According to a philosopher of language and the developer of the speech JL Austin (1962). There are
three types of acts in every utterance, given the right circumstances or context.
These are:
1. Locutionary act- is the actual act of uttering.
“Please do the dishes”
2. Illocutionary act- is the social function what is said.
“By uttering the locution Please do the dishes the speaker requests the to wash the dishes'
3. Perlocutionary act- is the resulting act of what is said. This effect is based on the particular context in
which the speech act was mentioned.
There are also indirect speech acts which occur when there is no direct connection between the form of
the utterance and the intended meaning. There are different in force (I.e., intention) from the inferred
speech act.
For example,
“Could you pass the rice?”
Inferred Speech act: Do you have the ability to hand over the rice?
Indirect speech act: Please pass the rice.
So while the utterance literally asks the addressee if he or she has the ability to hand a plate of rice, it
actually indirectly requests the addressee to pass the rice to the speaker.
Performatives
Performatives -verbs that execute the speech act that they intend to effect.
Performative utterances- statements which enables the speaker to perform something just by stating it.
A performative utterance said by the right person under the right circumstances results in a change in
the world. Certain conditions have to be met when making a performative utterance.
Searle’s Classification of Speech Acts
John Searle (1976)- classified illocutionary acts into five distinct categories.
1. Assertive- the speaker expresses belief about the truth of a proposition. (putting forward, swearing,
boasting and concluding).
2. Directive- the speaker tries to make the addressee perform an action. (asking, ordering, requesting,
inviting, advising, and begging).
3. Commissive- commits the speaker to doing something in the future. (promising, planning vowing, and
betting).
4. Expressive- the speaker expresses his/her feelings or emotional reactions (thanking, apologizing,
welcoming, and deploring).
5. Declaration- brings a change in the external situation. Simply put, declarations bring into existence or
cause the state of affairs which they refer to.
Speech acts include concrete life interactions that require the appropriate use of language within a
given culture. Communicative competence (i.e., the ability to use linguistic knowledge to effectively
communicate with others) is essential for a speaker to be able to use and understand speech acts.
Idioms and other nuances in a certain language might be lost or misunderstood by someone who does
not fully grasp the language yet.
Types of Communicative Strategies
Cohen(1990)- stated that strategies must be used to start and maintain a conversation. Knowing and
applying grammar appropriately is one of the most basic strategies to maintain a conversation.
1. Nomination- A speaker carries out nomination to collaboratively and productively establish a topic.
2. Restriction- refers to any limitation you may have as a speaker. You are typically given specific
instructions that you must follow. These instructions confine you as a speaker and limit what you can
say.
3. Turn-taking- pertains to the process by which people decide who takes the conversational floor. The
primary idea is to give all communicators a chance to speak.
4. Topic Control- covers how procedural formality or informality affects the development of topic in
conversations.
-allowing an individual to have a smooth flow of the message without interruptions.
5. Topic shifting- involves moving from one topic to another. In other words, it is where one part of a
conversation ends and where another begins.
6. Repair- refers to how speakers address the problems in speaking, listening, and comprehending that
they may encounter in a conversation. Repair is the self-righting mechanism in any social interaction
(Schegloff et al, 1977) if there is a problem in understanding the conversation, speakers will always try to
address and correct it. Although this is the case, always seek to initiate the repair.
7. Termination- refers to the conversation participants’ close-initiating expressions that end a topic in a
conversation.

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Three Types of Speech Acts

“Please do the dishes”

2. Illocutionary act- is the social function what is said.

“Could you pass the rice?”

Indirect speech act: Please pass the rice.

Types of Communicative Strategies

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