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3rd YEAR PRAGMATICS INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS Searle: the distinction between sentence meaning and Speakers meaning. sentences and words have only the meanings that they have. Strictly speaking, whenever we talk about the metaphorical meaning of a word, expression, or sentence, we are taking about what a speaker might utter it to mean, in a way that departs from what the word, expression, or sentence actually means.... To have a brief way of distinguishing what a speaker means by uttering words, sentences, and expressions, on the one hand, and what the words, sentences, and expressions mean, on the other, I shall call the former speaker's utterance meaning, and the latter, word, or sentence, meaning.
e.g. A: Are you home alone? B: Yes, I am. may be interpreted as: i' )Yes, I am and I'm terrified. ii")Yes, I am and I'm so happy I'm going to throw a party. i'") Yes, I am. Why don't you come over?

Kent Bach: while engaging in verbal communication, there are three ways in which we can perform a speech act: (1) directly or indirectly, with the aid of performing another speech act, Why dont you finish your drink and leave? (2) literally or nonliterally, depending on the whether the utterance makes more sense if used literally or if employed to be understood figuratively, and We all know whos pulling the ropes in this department. Youre making a mountain out of a mole! (3) explicitly or inexplicitly, depending on whether we clearly and straighforwardly formulate our communicative intentions. Fire me and well meet in court Such Us involve: a direct SA = their conventionally expected function (Q, assertion, exclamation) an indirect SA = their extra actual function (request, suggestion, order, threat, wishing luck, request/order)) An ISA is defined as an U in which one illocutionary act (a primary act) is performed by way of the performance of another act (a literal

act). Hs are able to interpret ISAs by relying upon their knowledge of SAs, along with general principles of cooperative conversation, mutually shared factual information, and a general ability to draw inferences. (Schiffrin 1994:59) indirect communication: one specific, context-bound utterance carries out one or several illocutionary acts by way of seemingly performing a different illocutionary act. e.g. we can make a request or give permission by making a statement, e.g. I am getting thirsty or Your rooms a mess, we can make a statement or give an order by way of asking a question, such as Will the waitress ever bring our drinks? or Can you clean up your room? The literal act is backgrounded/secondary while the nonliteral act is foregrounded/primary (Searle 1975): Can you pass the salt? ==>Please pass the salt. I wish you wouldnt do thatPlease dont do that. Arent you going to eat your cereal? ==>Please eat your cereal. Why can such Us count as requests and an U like Salt is made of sodium chloride cannot? Searles solution : the respective Us work because they address the felicity conditions for requests. e.g. Can you pass the salt? addresses the preparatory condition (H is able to perform A) I wish you wouldnt do that addresses the sincerity condition (S want H to do A) Arent you going to eat your cereal? addresses the propositional content condition Gordon & Lakoff (1975) view Hs as using shortcuts in conversation, called conversational postulates Can you... is a formula : when a S asks whether H can do A, this implies a request for H to do A. Such conversational postulates are learned like idioms Thomas: ...indirectness occurs when there is a mismatch btw. the expressed meaning and the implied meaning (Thomas 1995: 119) 1. pragmatics is concerned with intentional indirectness 2. indirectness is costly and risky 3. Ss should (seek to) obtain some social or communicative advantage through employing indirectness 4. Indirectness is largely related to politeness phenomena (1) To Liz, who has been listening to Justin Bieber for a fortnight Would you like to listen to something else now? Liz: No, Im pleased with Justin. (2) To Susan, an American guest.

Would you like a drink? Susan: Well, Ive been on beer all day. (3) Editor to researcher who has submitted a paper: In your paper, you slightly run the risk of being accused of using generative theories in an unprincipled way... (4) Staff member to Chief Librarian: Have you given any thought to having me subscribed to Journal of Pragmatics? display cleverness (5) Supervisor to students having taken their morning off: I hope the Sainsbury spree has not turned you all into shopaholics so the point of squandering your book allowance on caviar and smoked salmon. (6) To fellow student who had problems upgrading: I hope you clarified whatever issues you were struggling with last week and everythings going smooth again Factors that govern indirectness: 1. The relative power of the S over the H 2. The social distance btw. the S and the H 3. The degree of imposition 4. The relative rights and obligations btw the S and the H Spencer-Oatey (1992): 3 types of power legitimate power (7) Student to course tutor: Dear Professor Brown, I would be extremely grateful if you could approve a weeks extension to the submission of my paper: Im afraid I need more time to thoroughly complete my analysis in the light of recent literature (8) Director to her secretary : Elaine, please make 14 copies of chapter 3 for the course tomorrow. Thanks. referent power : (9) One participant to conference to another during the break I was really fascinated with your presentation. Could you send me a copy if this is not too much trouble? expert power : (10) Dear Professor Rosch, Your latest article on Principles of Categorisation would be of crucial importance in my research. Would there be any way for me to get a copy, taking into account that, sadly enough, our faculty cannot afford to pay a subscription to Cognitive Linguistics? Social distance vs. solidarity (11a) to a peer: Got any change, Jay? vs. (11b) to a stranger : Excuse me, could you change fifty pence for me? I need tens or fives for the coffee machine. (12a) To cooperative classmate:Help the papers stuck in the photocopier vs.(12b) To friend with whom a disagreement has been had recently: Do you have any idea what youre supposed to do when the paper gets stuck in the photocopier? Size of imposition

(13a) Supervisor to Supervisee : Rewrite this passage, its a bit unclear towards the end (13b) Im afraid you may need to take a more critical stance towards Austins theory and that implies reweighing the pros and cons. Goffmans notion of free and non-free- goods.Lakoff (1974) extended the concept of free/non-free goods to information. Some topics can be dealt with freely, unrestrictedly (weather), others are none of your business (non-free goods). Rights and obligations: Indirectness may be regulated by the Ss right to make a particular demand and/or by the Hs obligation to comply. e.g. (14a) Next stop! signalled to driver if there is a scheduled stopping place (14b) Do you think you could possibly let me out just beyond the traffic lights, please? WHY INDIRECTNESS? 1. The desire to make ones L more interesting (15)Teacher suspecting student to have skipped classes: With your diplomatic flu, a dose of pragmatics is the last thing you need 2. Increasing the force of ones message (16) Editor to researchers who are late in submitting their papers for publication : Publish or perish instead of Send me your papers for publication ASAP. 3. Competing goals (17) Teacher has to tell Student that their work is not up to standard the teachers need/duty to tell the truth may conflict with the desire not to hurt the students feelings. This is a very ambitious project. Despite the well-documented review of literature, there are occasional confusions between structuralist and post-structuralist issues 4. Politeness : Brown & Levinson : the face is the public self image that every member of society wants to claim for himself (1978). 1. positive face , which represents an individuals desire to seem worthy and deserving of approval 2. negative face, an individuals desire to be autonomous, unimpeded by others. A kind of mutual self-interest requires that participants in a conversation maintain both their own face and that of their interlocutor. Many verbal exchanges are potential threats to face:

1. threats to negative face potentially damage an individuals autonomy (orders, requests, suggestions, advice; self-face threatening : apologies, confessions) 2. threats to positive face potentially lower an individuals self- and social esteem (disapproval, disagreement, accusations, interruptions)