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Speech Act

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SPEECH ACTS

in pragmatics

Almassova Altynay
Nauryzbaeva Zhyldyzay
Pragmatics
 Pragmatics is language in context and the
influence of situation on meaning; the rules
of language use, including how sentences fit
into a larger discourse and non-linguistic
context.
 Pragmatics studies language in context and
the influence of situation on meaning
SPEECH ACTS THEORY
 Speech-act theory is a subfield of pragmatics.
 A speech act is an action performed by means of
language
 Ex.:
 describing something (“It is snowing”)
 asking a question (“It is snowing”)
 making a request or order (“Could you pass the
salt?” , “Drop your weapon or I’ll shoot you!”)
 making promise (“I promise I’ll give it back.”)
Speech acts
 People use language with communicative
intentions.
 Speech acts are acts of communication
that express those intentions.
 A speech act can be divided into three different smaller
acts: locutionary act
 illocutionary act
 perlocutionary act

J.L.Auston
Speech acts
 Locutions: the utterance act. Sentences have a grammatical
structure and a literal linguistic meaning; the bald, literal force of
the act: what did the person say? (Not, what did the person mean?)
 Illocution: the speaker's intention of what is to be accomplished
by the speech act.
Compare: How'd you like to hand me that bag? (locution: a
question) has the illocutionary force of a command:
namely: Hand me the bag!
Perlocutionary acts, on the other hand, bring about a consequence
to the audience. They have an effect on the hearer, in feelings,
thoughts, or actions, for example, changing someone's mind
PERFORMATIVE VERBS
 I assert the Prime Minister is out of the country.
 I ask when and where is the lecture?
 I order you to stand up.
 I request that you carry my bags
 I warn you that there’s a spider on your shoulder.
These sentences have verbs that state the speech act.
These verbs are called performative verbs.
These verbs can be used to perform the acts they name.
Speech Act Types
 Commissives
 Directives
 Representatives
 Expressives
 Declarations
Commissives
The speaker commits himself to a future course of action

I’ll be back (promises, threats, pledges – what we intend to


do)
Directives
 The speaker tries to make the hearer do
something

Don’t touch that (commands, orders, suggestions)


REPRESENTATIVES

The speaker asserts a proposition to be true.

It was a warm sunny day. John is a liar.


Expressives
 Expressions of the speaker’s psychological
state about something.

 I’m really sorry. Happy birthday!


(statements of pleasure, joy, sorrow, etc.)
Declarations
The speaker changes the external status.

I pronounce you man and wife. I name this


cat…
References:
 Victoria A. Fromkin. (2000). An Introduction Into Linguistics.
pp. 708-709 \
 All about Linguistics. (2018). Retrieved from https://all-about-
linguistics.group.shef.ac.uk/branches-of-linguistics/pragmatics/what-
is-pragmatics/
 Nordquist Richard. (2019). Speech Acts in Linguistics. Retrieved
from https://www.thoughtco.com/speech-act-linguistics-1692119
 H.Schiffman. (1997). Speech acts and conversation. Retrieved from
https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/edling/handouts/speechacts/spc
hax2.html
Thank you for your attention!

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