CONTENTS
Introduction....................3Chapter 1: Speech Act
Theory...................5Chapter 2: Indirect Speech Acts in
English........................10Conclusion....................15References.....................17
INTRODUCTION
Language is an inseparable part of our everyday lives. It is the
main tool used to transmit messages, to communicate ideas, thoughts
and opinions. It situates us in the society we live in; it is a
social affair which creates and further determines our position in
all kinds of various social networks and institutions. In certain
circumstances we are literally dependent on its appropriate usage
and there are moments when we need to be understood quite
correctly. Language is involved in nearly all fields of human
activity and maybe that is why language and linguistic
communication have become a widely discussed topic among linguists,
lawyers, psychologists and philosophers.Basically, we have carried
out the present paper based on the works of J. R. Searle, J. L.
Austin, P. W. Culicover, S. C. Levinson, G. U. Yule. The problem of
speech acts was pioneered by another American language philosopher
J.L. Austin. His observations were delivered at Harvard University
in 1955 as the William James Lectures which were posthumously
published in his famous book How to Do Things with Words. It is
Austin who introduces basic terms and areas to study and
distinguishes locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts.In
general, speech acts are acts of communication. To communicate is
to express a certain attitude, and the type of speech act that is
performed corresponds to the type of attitude being expressed. For
example, a statement expresses a belief, a request expresses a
desire, and an apology expresses regret. As an act of
communication, a speech act succeeds if the hearer identifies, in
accordance with the speakers intention, the attitude being
expressed. In indirect speech acts the speaker communicates to the
hearer more than he actually says by way of relying on their mutual
shared background information, together with the general powers of
rationality and inference on the part of the hearer. Imperatives
can function as indirect speech acts performing advice, offer,
suggestion, invitation, gratitude, warning, threat, resentment,
persuasion, prohibition. These well observe in the following
paper.In accordance with the tasks and goals, the present paper
consists of introduction, two chapters, conclusion and references.
Chapter 1 (Speech Act Theory) deals with the discussion of the
three related acts locutionary, illocutionary, perlocutionary. It
is worth mentioning, that the classification of speech acts varies
from linguist to linguist. Chapter 2 (Indirect Speech Acts in
English) is concerned with the discussion of indirect speech acts
and reveals the cases when imperative sentences function as
indirect speech acts. Conclusion sums up the results of our
analysis. Referances lists all the used sources.
CHAPTER 1SPEECH ACT THEORY
This opening chapter is concerned with the study of the theory
of speech acts in Modern English. It is believed that pragmatics is
concerned with how people use language within a context, in
real-life situations. While semantics was concerned with words,
phrases and sentences, the unit of analysis in pragmatics is the
utterance. In pragmatics we study how factors such as time, place
and the social relationship between speaker and hearer affect the
ways in which language is used to perform different functions.
Language is action, in the words of J. L. Austin, and much of the
interaction between human beings is based on verbal action, for
example when we request, promise, swear, apologize etc. Pragmatics
is primarily based on the theory of speech acts. According to an
American language philosopher J.R. Searle speaking a language is
performing speech acts, acts such as making statements, giving
commands, asking questions or making promises. Searle states that
all linguistic communication involves linguistic (speech) acts. In
other words, speech acts are the basic or minimal units of
linguistic communication.Let us start by considering the fact that
speech act theory is built on the foundation laid by Austin, Searle
and Wittgenstein. John Searle is most often associated with the
theory. Ludwig Wittgenstein began a line of thought called ordinary
language philosophy. He taught that the meaning of language depends
on its actual use. Language, as used in ordinary life, is a
language game because it consists of rules. In other words, people
follow rules to do things with the language. According to Searle,
to understand language one must understand the speakers intention.
Since language is intentional behavior, it should be treated like a
form of action. Thus, Searle refers to statements as speech acts.
The speech act is based unit of language used to express meaning,
an utterance that expresses an intention (Searle 1969).Many
utterances (things people say) are equivalent to actions. When
someone says: I name this ship or I now pronounce you man and wife,
the utterance creates a new social or psychological reality. Speech
act theory broadly explains these utterances as having three parts
or aspects: locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts.The
locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts are, in fact,
three basic components with the help of which a speech act is
formed. Leech (Leech 1983: 199) briefly defines them as:
locutionary act: performing an act of saying something
illocutionary act: performing an act in saying something
perlocutionary act: performing an act by saying
somethingLocutionary act is the basic act of utterance, or
producing meaningful linguistic expression. The locutionary act can
be viewed as a mere uttering of some words in certain language,
while the illocutionary and perlocutionary acts convey a more
complicated message for the hearer. An illocutionary act
communicates the speakers intentions behind the locution and a
perlocutionary act reveals the effect the speaker wants to exercise
over the hearer. This can be demonstrated on a simple example:Would
you close the door, please?The surface form, and also the
locutionary act, of this utterance is a question with a clear
content (Close the door.) The illocutionary act conveys a request
from the part of the speaker and the perlocutionary act expresses
the speakers desire that the hearer should go and close the
door.John: "Darling, do you want to go out to the show
tonight?"Laura: "I'm feeling ill."John: "That's ok. You stay there
and I'll make soup."Special attention should be paid to how
Lauradidn'trespond to John's question by saying, "No, I don't want
to go out to the show tonight." What she actually said
herlocutionary act was "I'm feeling ill."Anillocutionary actis what
a person doesin sayingsomething else. Locution is speech.
In-locution (in speaking) becomes il-locution through phonetic
assimilation. In saying that she feels ill, Laura was telling John
that she doesn't want go out.Beyond communicating the state of her
health and the answer to John's question, Laura accomplished one
more thingthrough saying"I'm feeling ill." She got John to make her
some soup. Aperlocutionary actis focused on the response others
have to a speech act.We dont simply create an utterance with a
function without intending it to have an effect. Basic concept of
Speech Act Theory is Saying is part of doing or : Words are
connected to actions. Oxford philosopher J. L. Austin is foremost
attributed to developing the theory. Austin formulated his ideas on
speech act theory in the 1930s and lectured on them at both Oxford
and Harvard in the first half of the 1950s. After Austins death one
of his former students, John r. Searle, took many of Austins ideas
and concepts on speech act theory and further elaborated and
refined them. One general classification system lists five types of
general functions performed by speech acts: Declarations,
representatives, expressive, directives and commisives.( Searle
1976:30, Yule 2008:48, Levinson 1983)One general classification
system lists five types of general functions performed by speech
acts - declarations, representatives, expressives, directives, and
commissives (Searle 1976: 1-15, Yule 2008:53, Levinson 1983:240).
Declarations are those kinds of speech acts that change the world
via their utterance and via words (Yule 2008). They effect
immediate changes in the institutional state of affairs and tend to
rely on elaborate extra-linguistic institutions (declaring war,
firing from employment) (Levinson 1983: 240). The given examples
below illustrate, the speaker has to have a special institutional
role, in a specific context, in order to perform a declaration
appropriately:a. Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife.b.
Referee: Youre out!c. Jury Foreman: We find the defendant guilty.
Representatives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the
speaker believes to be the state or not. Statements of fact,
assertions, conclusions, and descriptions are all examples of the
speaker representing the world as he or she believes it is. a. The
earth is flat.b. Chomsky didnt write about peanuts.c. It was a warm
sunny day.In these examples is illustrated the above mentioned.
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,
complimenting, congratulating, thanking, welcoming. As illustrated
in the examples below, they can be caused by something the speaker
does or the hearer does, but they are about the speakers experience
(Yule 2008: 53).a. Im really sorry.b. Congratulations!c. Oh, yes,
great, mmmm, ssahh! 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 they can be positive or negative, as illustrated
in these examples:a. Give me a cup of coffee. Make it black.b.
Could you lend me a pen, please?c. Dont touch that. 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. They can be performed by
the speaker alone, or by the speaker as a member of a group, e. g.
Ill be back, Im going to get it right next time, we will not do
that.So, in using declaration, the speaker changes the world via
words, in using representatives, the speaker makes words fit the
world (of believe), in using expressive, the speaker makes words
fit the world (of feeling), in using a declarative, the speaker
attempts to make the world fit the words (via the hearer), and in
using a commissive, the speaker undertakes to make the world fit
the words (via the speaker).Speech acts cannot be fully understood
without considering the hearers as well as the speakers (Clark
& Carlson 1982:337) Speech acts are directed are directed at
real people, whose abilities to recognize put limits on what
speakers can do with their utterances. There are direct speech acts
as well as indirect ones. Misapplication of the indirectness
principle can lead to communication disruption.The problem posed by
indirect speech acts is the problem of how it is possible for the
speaker to say one thing and mean that but also to mean something
else. And since meaning consists in part in the intention to
produce understanding in the hearer, a large part of that problem
is that of how it is possible for the hearer to understand the
indirect speech act when the sentence he hears and understands
means something else. The problem is made more complicated by he
fact that some sentences seem almost to be conventionally used as
indirect requests. For a sentence like Can you reach the salt, or I
would appreciate it if you would get off my foot, it takes some
ingenuity to imagine a situation in which their utterances would
not be requests.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. There
is an esay recognized, relationship between the three structural
forms (declarative, interrogative, imperative) and the three
general communicative functions (statement, question,
command/request). You wear a seat belt (declarative), Do you wear a
seat belt? (interrogative), Wear a seat belt! (imperative), (G.
Yule 2008:54).Thus, we revealed that there are five types of
general functions performed by speech acts, namely declaratives,
representatives, expressives, directives and commisseves.
CHAPTER 2INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS IN ENGLISH
Indirectness is a widely used conversational strategy. People
tend to use indirect speech acts mainly in connection with
politeness (Leech 1983: 108) since they diminish the unpleasant
message contained in requests and orders, for instance,Its very hot
in hereIn this example the speaker explains or even excuses the
reason why he makes a request (Open the window!). People use
indirectness, because sometimes direct addresses may even appear
impolite as in Would you lend me some money? and Lend me some
money! The latter variant would be absolutely unacceptable in some
contextsHowever, politeness is not the only motivation for
indirectness. People also use indirect strategies when they want to
make their speech more interesting, when they want to reach goals
different from their partners or when they want to increase the
force of the message communicated (Thomas 1995: 143).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. There is an easily recognized
relationship between the three structural forms (declarative,
interrogative, imperative) and the three general communicative
functions (statement, question, command/request). You wear a seat
belt (declarative), do you wear a seat belt? (interrogative), Wear
a seat belt! (imperative) (Yule 2008:55).Different structures can
be used to accomplish the same basic function, as in the examples
below, where the speaker wants the addressee not to stand in front
of the TV.a. Move out of the way!b. Do you have to stay in front of
the TV?c. Youre standing in front of the TV.d. Youd make a better
door that a window.The basic function of all the utterances in
these examples is a command/request, but only the imperative
structure in the first example represent a direct speech act. The
interrogative structure in the second example is not being used
only as a question, hence it is an indirect speech act. The
declarative structures in the last two sentences are also indirect
requests.One of the most common types of indirect speech act in
English has the form of an interrogative, but is not typically used
to ask a question (i.e. we dont expect only an answer, we expect
action).a. Could you pass the salt?b. Would you open this?These
examples are normally understood as requests.Indeed, there is a
typical pattern in English whereby asking a question about the
hearers assumed ability (Can you?, Could you?) or future likelihood
with regard to doing something (will you?, Would you?) normally
counts as a request to actually do that something.Indirect speech
acts are generally associated with greater politeness in English
that 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.In the theory of speech acts Searle has
introduced the notion of an indirect speech act. In indirect speech
acts the speaker communicates to the hearer more than he actually
says by way of relying on their mutual shared background
information, together with the general powers of rationality and
inference on the part of the hearer (Searle 1976).Imperatives can
function as indirect speech acts performing advice, offer,
suggestion, invitation, gratitude, warning, threat, resentment,
persuasion, prohibition. Its worth mentioning that proverbs and
sayings provide an ample amount of negative imperatives, which
serve as the most direct and impressive means of expressing folk
wisdom and experience, such as Dont wash your dirty linen in
public, Dont put your eggs in one basket, Never put off till
tomorrow what you can do today.To change from direct speech to
indirect speech of imperative constructions also has certain
consequences. As it was mentioned imperatives can function as
indirect speech acts performing advice, offer, suggestion,
invitation, gratitude, warning, threat, resentment, persuasion,
prohibition. We will view examples of the above mentioned
separately to get a clearer picture of them:1. Advicea. Relax, Mom.
Theyll find us. (Ellen Schwamm,How he saved her, p. 9) b. Dont talk
to strangers. (Cynthia Voigt, Homecoming, p. 121) c. Dont worry,
well be all right, as long as were together. (Cynthia Voigt,
Homecoming, p. 223)d. Be diligent, try to like it, my dear boy work
for a steady independence, and be happy. (Cynthia Voigt,
Homecoming, p. 71)In the first example [a], the characters were
waiting for grandpa and grandma, and they werent sure whether they
knew the way to their house, Mother was worrying, but the daughter
was calming her Mom, advising her not to worry, because she had
already seen them, and they were headed right that way.In [b], the
speaker sends a child to a grocer, but, as the street was unknown
to the child, Dicey (the speaker) advised the child not to speak to
strangers, in order not to be hurt.In [c], as the characters of
Himecoming were lost and couldnt find the way back to home, one of
them was calming his friend and advising not worry, as he was sure
everything would be all right, and they could overcome any
difficulty together.In [d], the boy got a new job, which he didnt
like and didnt want to go and work, but his mother wanted to
encourage and inspire his son advising the following: Be diligent,
try to like it, my dear boy work for a steady independence, and be
happy.2. Offer/ Suggestion/invitationa. Come and have breakfast,
mate, he said. (Maugham, p.165)b. Sit down and lets talk, shall we?
(Ellen Schwamm, How he saved her, p. 116)c. Take your overcoat off
and put your hat down and then youll feel much better. (Priestly,
p. 265)d. Welcome, Maudie said, opening the door. (Ellen Schwamm,
How he saved her, p. 182)e. Come to lunch some day, he suggested,
as we groaned down in the elevator. (Fitzgerald, 41) 3. Gratitudea.
Thank you for saying that, darling, she said and pressed her lipsto
his forehead one last time. (Ellen Schwamm, How he saved her, p.
28) 4. Warninga. Careful of the wall on your right side, Nora.
(Ellen Schwamm, How he saved her, p.122)b. Be careful, Nora.
Annihilate desire and you annihilate the mind. (Ellen Schwamm, How
he saved her, p.241)c. Watch it! Youre going off the road!
(Sheldon, p. 304)In [a] Nora was being warned to be careful of the
wall on her right side, as the wall was ramshackled and it was
going tocollapse, as she was walking near the wall. 5. Threata.
Come! Try! I must really scold you if you dont! (Ch. Dickens,
Dombey and Son, p.36) 6. Resentmenta. Shut up, Louise said, Move
it, Edie. They slipped away into the darkness. (Cynthia Voigt,
Homecoming, p.70)b. Dont vex me, said Good Mrs. Brown. (Ch.
Dickens, Dombey and Son, p.108)c. Listen to her! Listen to how she
spits on her mothers grey hair! (Shew, p.255) 7. Persuasiona. Come
on, Pa. Take your turn. No shirking. Take your turn, Pa. Show us a
conjuring trick. (Priestley, 236)b. Only sign this receipt, he
explained. You ought to count it first to see iff its all right.
(Priestley, 265)We are to state that persuasive or insistent
imperatives can also be created by the auxiliary do, which makes
the wish or offer more emphatic.1. Oh, do come in and sit down a
minute, Susan, please, said Polly. (Ch. Dickens, Dombey and Son,
p.102)2. Do untie your bonnet-strings and make yourself at home,
Miss Nipper, please, entreated Jemina. (Ch. Dickens, Dombey and
Son, p.102) 8. ProhibitionIt should be noted that prohibition is
often expressed by the negative form of the verb, though it may be
expressed by the affirmative form as well.a. Dont move until you
hear me leave. (Ellen Schwamm, How he saved her, 52)b. Dont wake
the children, Susan dear, said Polly. (Ch. Dickens, Dombey and
Son,85)c. All right, she cried exasperated. Never mind. Just stop
pestering me. I dont care what you do, but let me get on with my
work. (54)d. Stop arguing, James! (Cynthia Voigt, Homecoming,231)It
can be inferred from the examples above that when prohibition is
expressed by the affirmative form of the verb, the notional verb
stop is mainly used.Its worth mentioning that proverbs and sayings
provide an ample amount of negative imperatives, which serve as the
most direct and impressive means of expressing folk wisdom and
experience, such as Dont wash your dirty linen in public, Dont put
your eggs in one basket, Never put off till tomorrow what you can
do today.To sum up, we can infer that imperative sentences vary
both in structure and the role they play in performing speech acts.
Besides their direct functions to give an order or make a request,
they perform a number of indirect speech acts, which include
advice, offer, invitations, surprise, disbelief, annoyance, regret,
resentment, persuasion, etc. Negative imperatives imply some
additional meanings, besides expressing prohibition.
CONCLUSION
Summing up the results of our analysis of the previous two
chapters we come to the following conclusion:1. Three basic
components with the help of which a speech act is formed are the
locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts. The locutionary
act can be viewed as a mere uttering of some words in certain
language, while the illocutionary and perlocutionary acts convey a
more complicated message for the hearer. An illocutionary act
communicates the speakers intentions behind the locution and a
perlocutionary act reveals the effect the speaker wants to exercise
over the hearer.2. Speech acts are acts of communication. To
communicate is to express a certain attitude, and the type of
speech act that is performed corresponds to the type of attitude
being expressed, as has been found out, a statement expresses a
belief, a request expresses a desire, and an apology expresses
regret. As an act of communication, a speech act succeeds if the
hearer identifies, in accordance with the speakers intention, the
attitude being expressed.3. We have also observed general
classification system lists 5 types of general functions performed
by speech acts declarations, representatives, expressive,
directives and commissives.In using declaration, the speaker
changes the world via words, in using representatives, the speaker
makes words fit the world (of believe), in using expressive, the
speaker makes words fit the world (of feeling), in using a
declarative, the speaker attempts to make the world fit the words
(via the hearer), and in using a commissive, the speaker undertakes
to make the world fit the words (via the speaker).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. There is an easily recognized
relationship between the three structural forms (declarative,
interrogative, imperative) and the three general communicative
functions (statement, question, command/request).4. 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.5. An imperative sentence is generally used to
give an order. We have found out that sometimes subjects of
imperative sentences are underlined as the understood you. This
kind of commands usually expresses insistence, irritation or
annoyance.6. It should also be noted that when an imperative
sentence is used as a way of expressing request, it toned down by
markers of politeness such as please. 7. In indirect speech acts
the speaker communicates to the hearer more that he actually says
by way of relying on their mutual shared background information.
Imperatives can function as indirect speech acts performing advice,
offer, suggestion, invitation, gratitude, warning, threat,
resentment, persuasion, prohibition.8. We can infer that imperative
sentences vary both in structure and the role they play in
performing speech acts. Besides their direct functions to give an
order or make a request, they perform a number of indirect speech
acts, which include advice, offer, invitations, surprise,
disbelief, annoyance, regret, resentment, persuasion. Negative
imperatives imply some additional meanings, besides expressing
prohibition.
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London: Oxford University Press2. Leech & Geoffrey. (1983).
Principles of Pragmatics. New York: Longman Singapore Publishing3.
Levinson & Stephen C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Press
Syndicate of the University of Cambridge4. Yule & Brown G.
(1983). Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press5.
Yule G. (1998). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press6. Yule
G., Series Editor Widdowson H. G. (2008). Pragmatics. Oxford
University Press7. Searle J. R. (1976). Speech Acts. London:
Syndics of the Cambridge University Press8. Searle J. R. (1979).
Expression and meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press9.
Searle J R. (1969). Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of
Language. Cambridge University Press
FICTION
1. Fitzgerald F. S. (1973). The Great Gatsbay. Kiev: Dnipro
Publishers2. Maugham W.S. (1974). The Moon and Sixpence. London:
William Heinmann Ltd.3. Prestley J.B (1974). Angel Pavement.
Moscow: Progress Publishers4. Scheldon S. (1980). Rage of Angels.
London: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.5. Shaw B. (1967). Mrs.
Warrens Profession.- Six Great Modern Plays.New York: Dell
Publishing Co., Inc.6. Thomas J. (1995). Meaning in Interaction, an
Introduction of Pragmatics, Longman
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