Speech Acts

Discourse and Pragmatics

Chapter 3
Brrian Paltridge
What is Pragmatics?

 Pragmatics:The study of meaning in relation to

the context in which a person is peaking or
writing.

 Pragmatics assumes that when people communicate

with each other, they normally follow some kind of
cooperative principle.
Interpreting Discourses

 Key aspects of contexts crucial to the production and

interpretation of discourse
1. Situational context: What people know about what they can
see around them (physical, social, linguistic).
2. Co-textual context: What people know about what they have
been saying.
3. Background context: What people know about each other and
the world (cultural knowledge, interpersonal knowledge, knowledge
about life, norms and expectations of particular discourse
communities)
How is meaning produced?

 Meaning is jointly accomplished by both the speaker and

the listener, or the writer and the reader.
 Meaning involves social, psychological, and cognitive factors.

 Discourse is a „collaborative social action‟ in which

language users „jointly collaborate in the production of
meanings and inferences.‟
Two influential works in pragmatics
Austin’s (1962) Searle’s (1969)
How to Do Things with Words Speech Acts
Austin and Searle
 Their work appeared during the time when logical
positivism prevailed, which stressed that:
 Language is to describe a fact or a state of affairs
 If a statement cannot be tested for truth or falsity, it is
meaningless

 They argued that language is used to „do things‟ other

than refer to the truth or falseness of statements.
 Language can go beyond literal meaning.
 We perform „acts‟ by using language - in the same way we
perform physical acts.
 We give orders, make requests, give warnings, give advice…etc.
Speech Acts

We use the term speech acts to describe actions such as:

 Asking questions
 Making requests
 Giving orders
 Making promises
 Giving advice
 Making threats
 Speech Acts: Action performed by a speaker
with an utterance.
 i.e. we do things by language rather than just referring to
the truth or falsity of a particular statement.
 Types of Acts
 Austin refers to three types of acts that occur in
everything we say:
1. Locutionary act: The literal meaning of the actual words.
 i.e. the basic act of utterance
2. Illocutionary act: The intention of the speaker when uttering those words.
 Normally we don‟t just produce well-formed utterances with no purpose. We form an
utterance with some kinds of function in mind.
 We might utter “I‟ve just made some coffee” to make a statement, an offer, or an explanation or any
other communicative purpose.
3. Perlocutionary act: The effect the utterance has upon the thoughts of the listener.
 We do not simply create an utterance with a function without intending it to have an
effect.
 Depending on the circumstances, you will utter “I‟ve just made some coffee” on the
assumption that the hearer will recognise the effect you intended (for example, to get
the hearer to drink coffee).
 The term „speech act‟ is generally interpreted quite narrowly to mean only the
illocutionary force of an utterance.
Example 1
Book, P: 56:
Bus driver: This bus won‟t move until you boys move in out of the
doorway.
 Locutionary act: Driver is saying she won‟t start the bus with people
standing in the doorway.
 Illocutionary act: An order (directive) to clear the doorway.
 Perlocutionary act: The boys moving inside the bus.

Remember:
Locutionary Act Illocutionary Force Perlocutionary Effect
• Literal meaning of the • Speaker‟s intention in • The effect this utterance has
actual words uttering the words on the thoughts or actions
of the other person
Example 2

Uttered by a woman in a waiting room:

“It is hot in here.”

Locutionary Act Illocutionary Force Perlocutionary Effect

• Referring to the • Request for someone to • Someone getting up and
temperature. turn on the air turning on the air
conditioning. conditioning.
EXERCISES
 May I borrow your laptop?
 Locutionary act:
 Illocutionary act:
 Perlocutionary act:

 You are fired.

 Locutionary act:
 Locutionary act:
 Perlocutionary act:
Categories of Speech Acts:
Illocutionary Acts

 According to Searle, these speech acts are:

1. Representatives
2. Directives
3. Questions
4. Commissives
5. Expressivies
6. Declarations
Speech Acts

1. Representatives: Utterances used

to describe some state of affairs.
 Stating, informing, predicting, notifying.

 Examples:
 The earth is round.
 The weather will be cold tomorrow.
Speech Acts

2. Directives: Utterances used to get the

hearer to do (or not do) something.
 They express what the speaker wants.
 Requesting, ordering, forbidding, advising, suggesting,
insisting, recommending.
 They can be positive or negative

 Examples:
 Give me a cup of coffee. Make it black. (Positive)
 Don‟t touch that. (Negative)
Speech Acts

3. Questions: Utterances used to get the hearer

to provide information.
 They are not restricted to the form of a question.
 Asking and inquiring.

 Example:
 What is your name?
 Were you absent yesterday?
Speech Acts

4. Commissives: Utterances used to commit the

SPEAKER to do some act.
 They express what the speaker intends.
 They can be performed by the speaker alone, or by the
speaker as a member of the group.
 Promising, threatening, volunteering, offering, guaranteeing, refusals, and
pledges.

 Examples:
 I‟ll be back.
 We will not do that.
 I‟m going to get it right next time.
Speech Acts

5. Expressives: Utterances used to express the

emotional state of the speaker.
 They express psychological states and can be statements of
pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes or sorrow.
 They can be caused by something the speaker does or the
hearer does, but they are about the speaker’s experience.
 Apologising, thanking, congratulating, condoling, welcoming.
 Examples:
 I‟m really sorry.
 Congratulations!
Speech Acts

6. Declarations: Utterances used to change the

state of some entity.
 The status of the entity changes by the mere uttering of
the words.
 In order to perform a declaration properly, the speaker has
to have a special institutional role (power) in a specific
context,
 Naming, appointing, resigning, firing, marrying, divorcing.
 Examples:
 Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife.
 Referee:You‟re out!
Direct & Indirect Speech Acts
Whenever there is a direct relationship between a
structure and a function, we have a direct speech act.
Whenever there is an indirect relationship between a
structure and a function, we have an indirect speech act.

Function Structure Utterance

Question Interrogative Did you eat the
pizza?
Command (or Imperative Eat the pizza
request) (please)!
Statement Declarative You ate the pizza.
Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

Structure (direct for each) Illocutionary Act

Declarative Representative
interrogative Questions
Imperative Directives
Declarative Commissives
Exclamatory - Declarative Expressives
Declarative Declaration

Example:
It’s cold outside.
{I am telling you that it is cold outside.} Statement (direct speech act)
OR
{I am asking you to close the door.} Request (indirect speech
act)
EXERCISES
Behavior of Illocutionary Acts in Discourse
A. It is not always easy to identify the illocutionary act of
what is being said:
 It may depend on the stage of the discourse: Where in the discourse the
utterance occurs.
Example: The utterance “O.K” can have many interpretations.
A: Let‟s grab lunch tomorrow
B: OK
Compared to:
Teacher enters into the room, students are still talking
Teacher: OK
So “OK” can mean:
 An expression of agreement
 A „continuer‟ in a conversation with no agreement
 A „pre-closing‟ word signaling the end of a conversation
Behavior of Illocutionary Acts in Discourse

B. One utterance may express more than

one illocutionary act at one time:
 Example: Uttered by the chair o committee to the
members:
Chair: We have a meeting tomorrow at 9 in my office.

Speech acts: Representative + Directive

Behavior of Illocutionary Acts in Discourse

C. No complete one-to-one correspondence

between syntactic forms and illocutionary acts:
(Direct or indirect illocutionary act)
 Examples:
 Waiter: What can I get you?
IA: Commissive - Offer Syntactic Form: Interrogative
 Customer: Can I have one hamburger with fries?
IA: Directive – Request Syntactic Form: Interrogative
 The room needs to be cleaned.
IA: Directive: -Request Syntactic Form: Declarative
An illocutionary act (e.g., a request) may be
spread over more than one utterance

A: Hello, welcome to Hungry Jack‟s.

Can I take your order please?
B: Can I have a Whopper with eggs?
A: Would you like cheese with that?
B: Yes please … and a junior Whopper
with cheese … and large fries
please.
A: Would you like any drinks or
dessert with that?
B: No thank you.
A: OK … that‟s a Whopper with
cheese and eggs, a Whopper junior
with cheese and large fries.
B: Yes. Thank you.
A: OK … Please drive through.
Someone might have more than a single
illocutionary act in mind

„I still haven‟t
finished my
„What are homework.‟
you doing
tonight?‟ Illocutionary Forces
• Answers the question.
• declines invitation.

„Nothing
special. What
Illocutionary Forces do you feel like
• A question. doing?‟
• An invitation.
Illocutionary Forces
• Answers the question.
• Accepts invitation.
Austin’s Felicity Conditions
 Austin: For speech acts to „work‟ they must meet certain
felicity conditions.
1. There must be a generally accepted procedure for a successful
speech act (e.g., wedding invitation)
2. The circumstances must be appropriate for the use of the
speech act (e.g., someone must be getting married)
3. The person who uses the speech act must be the appropriate
person to use it in the particular context (e.g., bride or groom‟s
family)
4. The person performing the speech act must be empowered (i.e.
have the required thoughts, feelings, and intentions for the speech act
to be „felicitous‟)
Otherwise, the speech act will „misfire‟ or be „abused‟
Searle’s Felicity Conditions
General conditions for ALL speech acts:
1. The hearer must hear and understand the language.
2. The speaker must not be pretending or play-acting.
(Seriousness)

Conditions specific to declarations and directives:

1. The speaker must believe that it is possible to carry
out the action.
2. The speaker is performing the act in the hearer’s
best interests
3. The speaker is sincere about wanting to do it.
4. The words count as the acts.
Application of Austin’s felicity conditions
Sarah: I think I might go and have another sandwich.
Soha: I was going to get another one.
Lama: Could you get me a tuna and cheese one please?
Soha: Me as well?

Directive speech act of „requesting‟

Followed Austin‟s felicity conditions:

1. Lama used a generally accepted procedure for requesting by asking a her friend to
bring her a sandwich.

2. The circumstances are appropriate for requesting; it is an appropriate place to talk

about sandwiches and about wanting another one.

3. The person making the request, Lama, is an appropriate person; the students are
equals, and it is not a great imposition.

4. The person, Lama, has the right intentions of making a request.

Application of Searle’s felicity conditions
Sarah: I think I might go and have another sandwich.
Soha: I was going to get another one.
Lama: Could you get me a tuna and cheese one please?
Soha: Me as well?

Directive speech act of „requesting‟

Followed Searle‟s felicity conditions:

1. Soha and Lama seem to believe that it is possible for Sarah to get them sandwiches.
She has functional legs and the sandwiches are not too far away.

2. They are not performing the act in Sarah‟s best interest. They are performing it in
their own interests. However, they are not making the request to burden or impose
on Sarah.

3. They genuinely want the sandwiches to eat; they are sincere.

4. Their words count as a request.

Example of a Non-felicitous
Declaratation Speech Act

 A man and woman discovered one month before their

wedding that their paperwork was incomplete and that it
would not be ready in time. They decided to go ahead with
the wedding ceremony and sign the papers later because
all the preparations were in place. Thus, the priest‟s words
“I now pronounce you man and wife” did not marry them.

 Legally, the papers were missing

 Pragmatically, not all the felicity conditions were met

 The context and roles of the participants were
recognized, the priest was saying the words in the
couple‟s best interests, but the speech act „marrying‟
was not successful, because they were „putting on a
show‟ for the benefit of the guests. The action was not
carried out completely, and the priest did not believe
that it was possible to carry out the action, did not
have the intention to carry out the action, and was not
sincere about wanting to do it.
 MORE
EXERCISES
 May I borrow a pen? (Student to a classmate)
• The speech act is a directive and it functions as a request. It is an indirect directive as
the syntactic structure used is the interrogative one. The direct one would be “give
me a pen” (imperative). We express directives in directly for politeness reasons.
• Sometimes, expressing the illocutionary act is only appropriate if we use the direct
expression such as the case with cooking books and exam instructions.
• Could you please choose the correct answer from the following?  Wrong because
the speech act has to be a direct one.
 Can I take your order? ( Waiter to customer) Indirect commissive offer, interrogative.
 Can I have a slice of Pizza? (Customer to waiter) Indirect directive request, interrogative.
 I‟m going to finish reading this book tonight. (Friend to friend) Direct commissive promise,
declarative.
 Listen carefully, please. (Wife to husband) Direct directive request, imperative.
 Are you going to leave the door wide open? (Teacher to student) Indirect directive order,
interrogative.
 My pen isn‟t working. (student to classmates) Indirect directive request, declarative.
 Clear your desk by the end of the day. (Boss to secretary) Indirect declaration, firing,
imparative.
 How beautiful you look today!(Husband to wife) Direct expressive, praising, exclamatory.
 You didn‟t study last night? (friend to friend) Indirect question, inquiring, declarative.
 I quit. (employee to manager) Direct declaration, quitting, declarative.