Illutionary, Lutionary, and the Direct and Indirect speech of act

1. What is Speech act?

In linguistics, a speech act is an utterance defined in terms of a speaker's intention and the effect it
has on a listener, or can be said as an action performed by a speaker with an utterance. Speech act
theory was proposed by by an Oxford philosopher J.L. Austin (How to Do Things With Words, 1962)
and further developed by American philosopher J.R. Searle . They believe that language is not only
used to inform or to describe things, it is often used to do things, to perform acts. The Speech-
act theory itself, as introduced, considers three levels or components of such utterances:

-Locutionary Acts
-Illocutionary Acts
-Perlocutionary Acts

2. The locutionary, Illocutionary and PerlocutionaryActs

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 like this:

- locutionary act: performing an act of saying something

- illocutionary act: performing an act in saying something
- perlocutionary act: performing an act by saying something

a. Locutionary Act

In speech-act theory, a locutionary act is the act of making a meaningful utterance. Also
known as a locution or an utterance act. The term locutionary act was introduced by British
philosopher John L. Austin in How to Do Things With Words (1962). American philosopher John
Searle has replaced Austin's concept of the locutionary act with what Searle calls the
propositional acti.e., the act of expressing a proposition.

Thus, Locutionary act is the basic act of utterance or producing a meaningful expression. When
someone produces the utterance, that utterance is called locutionary act. For example someone
said it is rain outside!, the utterance itself it is rain outside! that called locutionary act. In
the simple explanation, locutionary act is the act of saying, the literal meaning of the utterance.
Locutionary act also can be called speakers utterance. Locutionary act is the literal meaning of
the utterance, that is, the meaning of the utterance which is carried by the words in the utterance
and their arrangement or their structure of words (Wagiman, 2008:69).

b. Illocutionary act
Illocutionary act is performed via the communicative force of an utterance. Illocutionary
act is an utterance with some kind of function in mind. Someone might utter to make a
statement, an offer, an explanation, or for some other communicative purpose. This is also
generally known as the illocutionary force of the utterance (Yule, 1996:48). This mean, in every
utterance that we produced it is also another act that performed inside the utterance.
Illocutionary is the act of the utterance. It is the act which is performed by saying the utterance.
It is the underlying force of the utterance or the interpretation of the utterance by the hearer
(Wagiman, 2008:70). Illocutionary act would include stating, promising, apologizing,
threatening, predicting, ordering and requesting. For example, it is rain outside!. That
utterance could be has meaning the speaker wish the hearer use umbrella if the hearer want to go
outside, or the speaker want the hearer not to go outside and stay still in the room.

c. Perlocutionary act.

The last part of the speech act is perlocutionary act. Perlocutionary act is the effect of the
utterance on the hearer, depending on specific circumstances. This is the effect on the hearer of
what the speaker says. Perlocutionary act is the consequent effect of the utterance on the hearer,
or the overall aim of the utterance (Wagiman, 2008:70). Perlocutionary act is the hearer s
reaction toward the speakers utterance. Perlocutionary acts would include such effects as
persuading, embarrassing, intimidating, boring, irritating, or inspiring the hearer.

For example, it is rain outside!. The perlocutionary effect from that utterance may the hearer
use umbrella when he or she go to outside, or the hearer keep stay still in the room.

Those are the exmplanation of the locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts. Here is the
another example of those kinds of speech acts :
"I am cold."

- Locutionary act: the grammatical properties of the utterance and the declarative nature of
it.
 - Illocutionary act: The actual nature of the utterance that is meant by the speaker, i.e. a
request if the hearer is able to do something about the speaker being cold. Depending on
the context, this can be a request to close the window or to start a fire in the hearth (or
perhaps a little less ancient: the central heating).
- Perlocutionary act: The effect the utterance has on the hearer, i.e. (not) closing the
window or (not) providing a heat source.

3. The Direct and Indirect Speech Of Act

Apart from distinguishing speech acts according to their general function, they can also
be distinguished with regard to their structure. Austin argued that what is said (the locutionary
act) does not determine the illocutionary act(s) being performed. Thus, we can perform a speech
act directly or indirectly, by way of performing another speech act. For example, we can make a
request or give permission by way of making a statement (e.g. by uttering I am getting thirsty or
It doesn't matter to me), and we can make a statement or give an order by way of asking a
question (e.g. such as Will the sun rise tomorrow? or Can you clean up your room? When an
illocutionary act is performed indirectly, it is performed through the use of another which is
direct.

a. Direct Speech of act

According to Nadar direct speech act is the utterances spoken by speaker directly in
accordance with the intent of speaker. So the statement will be convey by declarative sentence,
question will be convey by interrogative sentence, instruction will be convey by instruction
sentence. The following examples show that the form correspondences with the function:
- A declarative is used to make a statement: You wear a seat belt.
- An interrogative is used to ask a question: Do you wear a seat belt?
- An imperative is used to make a command: Wear a seat belt!
Direct speech acts therefore explicitly illustrate the intended meaning the speaker has
behind making that utterance.

b. Indirect Speech
Nandar (2009: 19) states that Indirect speech act is meant to be, and he gives several hints
as to how this might happen. Indirect is a widely used conversational strategy. People tend to use
indirect speech acts mainly in connection with politeness since they thus diminish the unpleasant
message contained in requests and orders for instance.
 Searle stated that an indirect speech is one that is performed by means of another
(Searle quoted in Thomas, 1995, p.93). That means that there is an indirect relationship between
the form and the function of the utterance. The following examples show that the form does not
correspondence with the function:
An interrogative is used to make a request: Where is my jacket anyway?

In example above father said where my jacket?, although the utterance has interogative pattern
but the question has purpose to ask someone to take the jacket for him/her.

The speaker does not explicitly state the intended meaning behind the utterance. It is the
hearers task to analyse the utterance to understand its meaning.

Reference :

https://www.thoughtco.com/speech-act-linguistics-1692119

http://communicationtheory.org/speech-act-theory/

http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/speech_act.htm

http://online.sfsu.edu/kbach/spchacts.html