SPEECH ACTS

(Pragmatics)

Group 4:
Annisa Nur Fitria Riska Lestari
Dini Handayani Sofiyatul Inayah

Class 4C English Department

 A. Speech Acts

 When someone expresses something, he does not

only produce utterances containing grammatical
structures and words, but he also performs an action
through the utterances.
 Action performed by an utterance called speech acts.
 Example: You’re fired!
This utterance can be used by us as an action to fire
someone from his current job.
 Performing action by producing an utterance has three
kinds of related acts. Those are:
Perlocutionary
Illocutionary
Locutionary Act Act/Perlocutionary
Act/Illocutionary Force
Effect

An utterance that An utterance that gives

An utterance which has
produces literal an effect to do
social function in mind
meaning something

For example: It’s hot here.

- Locutionary act: The speaker feels hot in his place.
- Illocutionary act: The utterance has two possible meanings inside
• An indirect request for someone to open the window.
• An indirect refusal to close the window because someone is cold
- Perlocutionary act: The hearer will open/close the window
 B. Illocutionary Act

 Illocutionary act is the main focus of speech acts.

 Illocutionary force from an utterance is what it
‘count as’.
 Example: I’ll see you later. We could find three
different assumptions of its meaning.
 (I predict that) I’ll see you later => a prediction
 (I promise you that) I’ll see you later => a
promise
 (I warn you that) I’ll see you later => a warning.
The problem could happens in every utterance:
They might have different meaning which can make
the hearer can not recognize the real illocutionary
force from the utterance.

How to solve this problem?

There are two ways to answer this:

IFIDs Felicity condition

 1. IFIDs

 Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices => an

expression from an utterance which contains a slot
to put a verb that explicitly named the illocutionary
act being performed.
 The verb called performative verb (Vp)
 I (Vp) you that...
 I’ll see you later.
 I warn you that I’ll see you later.
 I promise you that I’ll see you later.
Speakers do not usually ‘perform’ their speech acts
with a performative verb. But sometimes, they use it
to distinct their speech act.

Him : Can I talk to Mary?

Her : No, she is not here.
Him : I’m asking you—can I talk to her?
Her : And I’m telling you—SHE IS NOT HERE!

They explicitly describe their utterance’s

illocutionary act by using ‘ask’ and ‘tell’ as
performative verb.
IFIDs can be identified as a word order, stress, and
intonation.

a. She is going! => I tell you.

b. She is going? => I request confirmation.
c. Is she going? => I ask you.
 2. Felicity condition

 To make the utterance can be recognize by the

hearer, the circumstance surrounding the speaker
must be appropriate with the condition.
 Such condition called felicity condition.
 Ex: I sentence you to six months in prison.
The performance won’t be appropriate if the speaker
is not a specific person in special context (in this
case, the speaker must be a judge in a courtroom).
A speech act needs to be performed along certain
types of conditions, in order to be successfully
recognized.

Propositional content
Preparatory condition
condition

Requires that the speech

Requires the participants to
act is embedded in a
understand the language,
context that is
not to act like actors or to
conventionally recognize,
lie.
thus, just by uttering a
E.g. Promise or warning
promise, the event will not
must be about the future.
happen by itself.
A speech act needs to be performed along certain
types of conditions, in order to be successfully
recognized.

Sincerity condition Essential condition

Requires that the speaker is

Requires that all parties
sincere in uttering the
intend the result.
declaration.
E.g. Changes state of
E.g. Promise is only
speaker from non-
effective when the speaker
obligation to obligation
really intends to carry it
(promise).
out.
 C. The Performative Hypothesis

 A way to assume the underlying utterance (U), there

is a clause, similar to the previous example (I (Vp)
you that ...), containing a performative verb (Vp)
which makes the illocutionary force explicit.
 I (hereby) Vp you (that) U
 In this clause, the subject must be first person
singular (‘I’), followed by the adverb ‘hereby’,
indicating that the utterance ‘counts as’ an action by
being uttered.
Look at the examples below:

I hereby order you

that you clean up Clean up this mess!
this mess.

The underlying clause in the blue box will always

make explicit, and the second one is implicit.

The first example (normally without ‘hereby’) is used by

speakers as explicit performatives. And the second
example is an implicit performatives or primary
performatives.
The advantage of this analysis type:
It makes clear just what elements are involved in he
production and interpretation of utterances.

Do it yourself! (implicit)
The reflexive in ‘yourself’ is made possible by the
antecendent ‘you’ in explicit version.
I order you that you do it yourself. (explicit)
The disadvantage of this analysis type:
Not all the pervormative verbs can be use to make
an explicit version of the implicit utterance.
- You’re dumber than a rock.
- ? I hereby insult you that you’re dumber than a rock

The really practical problem with any analysis

based on identifying explicit performative is we
simply do not know how many performative verbs
are there in any language. To solve this, there is a
general classification system list of function
performed by speech acts that can be used.
 D. Speech Act Classification

One general classification system lists five types of

general function performed by speech acts:

Declaration

Representative Expressive

Directive Commissive
 1. Declaration

 Speech acts that change the world via their

utterance/word.
 For example:
a) Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife.
b) Referee: You’re out!
c) Judge: I sentence you to six months in prison!
 2. Representative

 Speech acts that state what speaker believes to be the

case or not.
 Fact, assertions, conclusions, descriptions =>
representing the world as he believes it is.
 The speaker makes the words fit the world (of belief).
 For example:
a) The earth is flat.
b) Chomsky didn’t write about peanuts.
c) It was a warm sunny day.
 3. Expressive

 Speech acts that state what speaker feels.

 Psychological expression => pleasure, pain, likes,
dislikes, joy, or sorrow.
 The speaker makes words fit the world (of feeling).
 For example:
a) I’m really sorry!
b) Congratulations!
c) Oh, yes, great, mmm, ssahh!
 4. Directive

 Speech acts that speaker use to get someone else to

do something.
 Command, orders, requests, suggestion => can be
positive or negative.
 The speaker attempts to make the world fit the
words (via hearer).
 For example:
a) Gimme a cup of coffee. Make it black.
b) Could you lend me a pen, please?
c) Don’t touch that.
 5. Commissive

 Speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves

to some future action.
 Promises, threats, refusals, pledges => can be
performed alone or by a group.
 The speaker undertakes to make the world fit the
words (via the speaker).
 For example:
a) I’ll be back.
b) I’m going to get it right next time.
c) We will not do that.
 Table of Speech Act Classification

Speech act Direction of fit S = Speaker, X =

type Situation
Declarations Words change the world S causes X

Representative Make words fit the world S believes X

Expressive Make words fit the world S feels X

Directives Make the world fit words S wants X

Commissive Make the world fit words S intends X

 E. Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

 Look at the examples below:

a. She plants a mango tree. (declarative-statement)
b. Does she plant a mango tree? (interrogative-
question)
c. Plant a mango tree! (imperative-
command/request).
 There is an easily recognized relationship between
three structural forms (declarative, interrogative,
imperative) and three general communication
function (statement, question, command/request).
Direct speech is a direct relationship between a
structure and a function.
Indirect speech is an indirect relationship between
a structure and a function.

For example:

We have known that a declarative sentence has a

function as a statement, so we call it direct speech
act.
But if the declarative sentence used to be a request,
we call it indirect speech act.
a) It’s cold outside.
b) I hereby tell you about the weather.
c) I hereby request of you that you close the door.

The utterance a) is a declarative. If we used it

make a statement as paraphrased in b), it is
functioning as a direct speech.
If the a) used to make a command/request, as
paraphrased in c), it is functioning as an indirect
speech.
a) Move out of the way! (imperative-command)
b) Do you have to stand in front of the TV?
(interrogative-command)
c) You’re standing in front of the TV. (declarative-
command)

Could you open the window?

The utterance not only needs the answer

Yes/No, but it also asks the hearer to do
something. Interrogative sentence as a
command (indirect speech act).
 F. Speech Event

 Speech act => one person trying to get another

person to do something without risking refusal or
causing offense.
 Speech event => the set of utterance produced in a
social situation involving participants who
necessarily have a social relationship and have
particular goals.
 The activity in which participants interact via
language in some conventional way to arrive at some
outcome.
a) : I don’t really like this.
b) : Ok, I will take another one.

a) As an obvoius central speech act

b) As the speech act that reacts to the
central speech act.

It means that in the speech event above

(complaining), there is a central speech act and
the other speech act that lead up and reacts to
the central action/speech act.
 A speech event can be defined by a unified set of
components through out:
 Same purpose of communication
 Same topic
 Same participants
 Same language variety (generally)
 For example: exchanging greetings, telling jokes,
giving speeches, requesting help, complaining, etc.
 Speech event: asking the time
A : What time is it? (speech act 1)
B : It is 3 o’clock. (speech act 2)
A : Thank you. (speech act 3)

 Speech event: exchanging greetings

A : Good morning, Sir. (speech act 1)
B : Morning. How are you today?
(speech act 2)
A : I’m fine, Sir. Thank you. (speech
act 3)