Lesson 6: Speech Acts PDF

Speech Acts Speech Acts - in linguistics, a speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication - it is the action that the speaker wants to provoke in his/her listener’s thoughts - people perform speech acts when they want to express an apology, greeting, request, compliment, in...

Speech Acts Speech Acts - in linguistics, a speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication - it is the action that the speaker wants to provoke in his/her listener’s thoughts - people perform speech acts when they want to express an apology, greeting, request, compliment, invitation, complaint, warning, promise, refusal, or declaration SPEECH ACT THEORY J.L. Austin (1962) Kinds of Illocutionary Acts 1. Constative 2. Performative Categories of Illocutionary Acts John Searle (1976) Locutionary Acts - according to Susana Nuccetell and from Gary Seay (from Philosophy of Language: The Central Topics) 2007, “the mere act of producing some linguistic sounds or marks with a certain meaning and reference." - refers to any utterances that may contain statements or words about objects - it may be a word, or even a phrase that has a meaning Illocutionary Acts - is the acting part of the speech act - it carries a directive for the audience - it may be a command, an apology, an expression of thankfulness or just an answer to a question for the information of other people in the communication process Constative - is an utterance that contains facts or a truth - a statement that makes something true of false by saying it Performatives - statements that enable the speaker to perform something by just stating it - a performative said that by the right person under the right circumstances results in a change in the world - certain conditions have to be met when making this utterance Searle’s Five Categories of Illocutionary Acts Assertive - a type of illocutionary act in which the speaker expresses belief about the truth of a proposition - examples are suggesting, putting forward, swearing, boasting, and concluding Directive - a type of illocutionary act in which the speaker tries to make the addressee perform an action - examples are asking, ordering, requesting, inviting, advising, and begging Commissive - a type of illocutionary act which commits the speaker to doing something in the future - examples are promising, planning, vowing, and betting Expressive - a type of illocutionary act in which commits the speaker to expresses his/her feelings or emotional reactions - examples are thanking, apologizing, welcoming, deploring Declaration - a type of illocutionary act which brings a change in the external situation - simply put, declarations brings into existence or cause the state of affairs which they refer to - examples are blessing, firing, baptizing, bidding, passing a sentence, and excommunicating Perlocutionary Acts - it is a speech act that produces an effect, intended or not, achieved in an addressee by a speaker’s utterance - can bring about a consequence to the audience - they have an effect to the listener in feelings, thoughts, or actions such as changing someone’s mind - persuading, convincing, scaring, enlightening, inspiring, or otherwise affecting the interlocutor  Always keep in mind that speech acts include concrete life interactions that require the appropriate use of language within a given culture. Communicative competence (i.e., the ability to use the linguistic knowledge to effectively communicate with others) is essential for a speaker to be able to use and understand speech acts. Idioms and other nuances in a certain language might be lost or misunderstood by someone who does not fully grasp the language yet. 1. Research for memes from various social media platforms or from the internet about speech acts. 2. There should be two memes for each category of Illocutionary Act 3. Memes can be in Tagalog but without profanity. 4. Submission is on December 11, 2023, Monday. 5. Print out your output on a long bond paper (maximum of two pages).