Speech Acts:

What is a Speech Act?

An action performed in saying something. We
perform speech acts when we offer an apology,
greeting, request, complaint, invitation, compliment,
or refusal. A speech act is an utterance that serves a
function in communication. A speech act might contain
just one word, as in "Sorry!" to perform an apology, or
several words or sentences: "Im sorry I forgot your
birthday. I just let it slip my mind."
Speech acts include real-life interactions and require not only
knowledge of the language but also appropriate use of that language
within a given culture.
Here are some examples of speech acts we use or hear every day:
Greeting: "Hi, Eric. How are things going?"
Request: "Could you pass me the mashed potatoes, please?"
Complaint: "Ive already been waiting three weeks for the
computer, and I was told it would be delivered within a week."
Invitation: "Were having some people over Saturday evening and
wanted to know if youd like to join us."
Compliment: "Hey, I really like your tie!"
Refusal: "Oh, Id love to see that movie with you but this Friday just
isnt going to work."

Speech act theory broadly explains these utterances :
1 . Locutionary act : saying something (the locution) with
a certain meaning in traditional sense. Two types of
locutionary act :
utterance acts : where something is said (or a
sound is made) and which may not have any meaning ,
example : Oh! - is an utterance (communication is
not intended - it is just a sound caused by surprise .)
propositional acts : where a particular reference
is made
Example: The black cat (something is referenced,
but no communication may be intended


2 . Illocutionary acts: are the real actions which are
performed by the utterance, where saying equals
doing, as in betting, believe , dare, warning. etc .
the performance of an act in saying something (vs.
the general act of saying something).
The illocutionary force is the speaker's intent. A true 'speech
act'.
e.g. informing, ordering, warning, undertaking.

Example:I promise to pay you back- is an
illocutionary act (it intends to communicate..)

3 . Perlocutionary acts: Speech acts that have
an effect on the feelings, thoughts or actions
of either the speaker or the listener. In other
words, they seek to change minds!
such as persuading, convincing, scaring,
enlightening, inspiring, or otherwise getting
someone to do or realize something


Example

Oh! - is an utterance (note that communication is not
intended - it is just a sound caused by surprise).

The black cat - is a propositional act (something is
referenced, but no communication may be intended)

The black cat is stupid - is an assertive illocutionary act
(it intends to communicate).

Please find the black cat - is a directive perlocutionary act
(it seeks to change behaviour).
when examining perlocutionary acts, the effect
on the hearer or reader is emphasized
Example: Please find the black cat - is a
directive perlocutionary act (it seeks to
change behaviour).
As an example, consider the following utterance:
"By the way, I have a CD of Debussy; would you like to borrow it?"
Its illocutionary function is an offer, while its intended
perlocutionary effect might be to impress the listener, or to
show a friendly attitude, or to encourage an interest in a
particular type of music.
.
Direct speech acts
When the semantic meaning of a sentence is the
same as what the speaker intended to convey , it is
described as a direct speech act.
For example, when a speaker doesn't know something
and asks the hearer to provide the information, he or
she will typically produce a direct speech act of the
following type:
Can you ride a bicycle ?
Did he come to class yesterday?
Structures Functions
Did you eat the pizza?................... Interrogative Question
Eat the pizza (please)! ..Imperative Command (Request)
You ate the pizza. . Declarative Statement
Indirect Speech act
Whenever one of the forms in the set above is used to perform a
function other than the one listed beside it, the result is an indirect
speech act .

:Now compare this utterance with:
Can you pass the salt ?
In this second example, you would not usually understand the
utterance as a question about your ability to do something. In fact,
you would not treat this as a question at all. You would treat it as a
request and perform the action requested.
We are not really asking a question about someones ability. In fact,
we dont
normally use this structure as a question at all. We normally use it to
make a request. That is, we are using a syntactic structure associated
with the function of a question, but in this case with the function of a
request. This is an example
of an indirect speech act.
It is possible to have strange effects if one person
fails to recognize another
persons indirect speech act. Consider the following
scene. A visitor to a city,
carrying his luggage, looking lost, stops a passer-by.
: Excuse me. Do you know where the Ambassador
Hotel is?
: Oh sure, I know where it is. (and walks away)
The main reason we use indirect speech acts
seems to be that actions such as requests
presented in an indirect way (Could you open
that door for me?) are generally considered to
be more gentle or more polite in our society
than direct speech acts (Open that door for
me!). Exactly why they are considered to be
more polite is based on some complex social
assumptions.