PRAGMATICS

SPEECH ACT
 SPEECH ACT
• A speech act is a concern with the speaker's communicative intention in
producing an utterance. It is defined by the purpose for which the
speakers use the language, for example, to make a request, to apologize,
and to report.
---- It means that the speech act is always used in daily life when speakers
say something and hearer knows the purpose of speakers' says in the
communication to make the best result in the communication.
• Yule (1996:47) uses the term speech act to refer to actions performed
via utterances.
Example: a boss says, “You are fired!” his/her words constitute the act of
firing an employee. In this example, the boss is performing an act via
utterance (Mey, 1994:112).
• Speech acts are acts of making statements or questions, giving
commands or order, refusing, complimenting, apologizing, etc. Yule
(1996) acknowledged that people do not merely say something using
the language out of the blue by performing speech acts. Instead, they
have the intention and force behind the utterances they utter, and those
utterances may affect the behavior of the hearer.
 TYPES OF SPEECH ACT
Austin (1969) is acknowledged as the creator of the Speech Act
Theory. Austin divided three parts of the Speech Act that are
Locutionary Act, Illocutionary Act, and Perlocutionary Act.
Locutionary Act
•Locutionary acts are the act that is performed in order to
communicate, the act of actual uttering (the particular sense and
reference of an utterance). It is the domain of fields like phonetics,
phonology, and linguistic semantics. Alternatively, in other words, a
locutionary act is the essential act of utterance or producing a
meaningful linguistic expression.
Illocutionary Act
• Yule (1996) stated that the term “illocutionary acts” is often
closely associated with the term speech act. An illocutionary
act is performed via the communicative force of an utterance,
such as making a statement, offer, explanation, or other
communicative purposes.
• For example, saying "put it out" may have a different kind of
force behind that. The speaker may say that because he tries to
stop a lady smoking in a smoke-free area, or he sees a window
curtain is on fire. Having the intention to say particular
utterances contribute to the idea of illocutionary acts.
Perlocutionary Act
• People (speakers) perform perlocutionary acts by expecting to
affect other people’s (hearers’) behavior. Affecting behavior
does not necessarily mean getting the hearer to do physical
movements; it also deals with the change of thought or habit
of the hearer. This statement is in line with Yule (1996), who
pointed out that perlocutionary acts bring the-so-called
perlocutionary effect when a speaker feels sad about being left
out. He says, "I am useless" to a friend. By hearing the
utterance, the hearer is affected and feels sorry. Feeling sorry
is the effect of the perlocutionary acts of the utterance, "I am
useless."
Several different scholars revealed different speech acts
classifications that were originated from Austin's.
Oluremi (2016) pointed out that Austin’s speech acts
classifications include:
Verdictive, related to the use of judgment for giving a verdict.
The lists of verbs under verdictives: acquit, convict, find, hold,
interpret, understand, rule, calculate, reckon, estimate, locate,
place, date, measure, grade, rank, rate, assess, value, describe,
characterize, diagnose, and analyze;
Executives, dealing with using power or asserting influence such
as appointing, voting, arguing, advising, and warning.
The lists of verbs under exercitives: order, command, direct,
sentence, fine, grant, vote for, choose, claim, nominate, bequeath,
pardon, give, warn, advise, resign, urge, announce, entreat,
annual and the rest;
Commissives, having the commitment to do something in the future
including declared intention;
The lists of verbs under commissive: promise, covenant, contract,
undertake, give my word, intend, mean to, plan, purpose, declare my
intention, am determined to, bind my self, vow, swear, espouse,
oppose and so on;
Behabitives, about expressing attitude;
The lists of verbs under behabitives: apologies, thank, commiserate,
compliment, condole, criticize, comment, welcome, bless, wish,
dare, defy, challenge:
Expositive pertains to the clarification of reason, argument, and
communication.
The lists of verbs under expositive: affirm, deny, state, describe,
identify, remark, mention, inform, apprise, tell, ask, testify, accept,
concede, correct, revise, deduce, turn to, interpret, distinguish, and
so forth.
Searle (1975) divides five categories for Illocutionary Act that is:

Assertive (Representative)
• The purpose is to convey information about some states of
affairs of the world from the speaker to the hearer, such as
boasting, asserting, claiming, characterizing, stating,
diagnosing, classifying, complaining, and concluding.
Directives
• The speaker requests the hearer to carry out some action or
bring about some states of affairs such as order, command,
insist, suggest, request, ask, beg, plead, pray, entreat, permit,
and advise.
Commissive
• The purpose is to show that the speaker undertakes something
by expressing an intention such as promise, pledge, threat, or
any other words that match the criteria of commissive.
Expressive
• The purpose is to bring about some state of affairs by the more
performance of the speech act or reveal the speaker's state of
mind about a situation such as apologies, welcome, thanks,
congratulate, console, or other words that match with
expressive.
Declarative
• The purpose is where the speakers bring about some state of
affairs by the more performance of the speech act or aim to
create a change such as resign, appoint, declare, name, call,
define, nominate, etc.
Yule (1996) represented a table of the five speech acts
classification based on Searle's theory.

Declarative force
The declarative force has a principle that words change the
world. It means that the speech act uttered by a speaker changes
the world or situation.
Police officer: You are under arrest!
When a police officer says the utterance to a person doing a
crime, the utterance changes the criminal's situation. From the
status of a free man, the person doing the crime is put in jail.
• However, suppose a teacher to a student utters the utterance.
In that case, the utterance does not make any difference or
change whatsoever the student because the ones who have the
right to say the utterance is only police officers.
Assertive force
• Making words fit the world means that speech acts with
assertive force is used to state what the speaker believes to be
the case or not the case. Yule (1996) said that the assertive
force represents the world as the speaker believes it is. Below
are the examples of speech acts with assertive force.
The earth is flat
Roses smell good
Expressive force
• As shown in table 1, by performing speech acts with
expressive force, the speaker wants to show what he/she feels
about particular situations. Expressive force expresses
psychological states such as likes and dislikes, joy, sorrow,
pain, and many others.
I am sorry.
Congratulation

Directive force
• Performing speech acts with a directive force means that the
speaker wants to get someone to do something. Giving
commands and orders are some examples of speech acts with
directive force.
Go away!
Commissive force
• Commissive force in speech acts shows the speaker’s
intention. Yule (1996) stated that speakers use commissive
force to express promises, threats, refusals, or pledges.
I promise to buy you ice cream after school.
References and Recommended Reading
•Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press.
•Oluremi, A. O. C. (2016). Speech acts and Welfarist Ideology in
Governor Aregbesola’s May 1, 2013 Address. International
Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research, 4(4), 23-
32.
•Searle, J. R. (1975). Expression and Meaning: Studies in Theory
of Speech Acts. London: Cambridge University Press.
•Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.