1. SPEECH ACTS
AND EVENTS
SPEECH ACTS
(AUSTIN, 1962)

2. Only if a sentence can be verified as truthful or
false it is meaningful…
 Subjective statements like the one below
would then be meaningless..
 a. shouting and screaming at your children is
wrong.
 b. Elizabeth is more beautiful than Mary.
 Getting married and having children is better
than… (Huang, 2007)

3. Sentences like:
 Good morning!
 Is she a vegan?
 Put the car in the garage, please…
are not statements, therefore cannot be either true
or false…

4.  I bet you sixpence it will rain tomorrow.
 I hereby christen this ship the H.M.S. Flounder.
 I declare war on Zanzibar.
 I apologize.
 I dub thee Sir Walter
 I object.
 I sentence you to ten years of hard labour.
 I bequeath you my Raffael
 I give my word
 I warn you that trespassers will be prosecuted.

5.  UTTERANCES USED TO DO THINGS ARE
CALLED ‘PERFORMATIVE”….
 “CONSTATIVES” UTTERANCES USED TO
STATE THINGS…

7. h
People do not only produce utterances containing
grammatical structures and words, they
perform actions via those utterances.
(1) You`re fired.
 The utterance can be used to perform the act of
ending your employment. However, the actions
performed by utterances do not have to be
dramatic or unpleasant.
(2a) You `re welcome.
speech event.

8.  Actions performed via utterances are
called SPEECH ACTS …
(apology, complaint, promise, or request)
 The speaker and the hearer are helped in
this process by the circumstances
surrounding the utterance. These are
called “Speech Events”.

9.  Inmany ways, the circumstances are the
ones that determine the interpretation of
the Speech Act…
 e.g.
“The tea is really cold.”

10. Speech acts
The action performed by producing an utterance
will consist of three related acts:
 LOCUTIONARY ACTS (basic act of utterance, or
producing a meaningful linguistic expression)
 e.g.
 The coffee tastes great.

11.  ILLOCUTIONARYACT is performed via the
communicative force of an utterance
 The previous example might be
 to invite
 To offer
 or simply as statement of fact

12.  PERLOCUTIONARY ACTS (we create an
utterance with a function intending it to
have an effect)
 e.g.
 The hearer, on hearing the sentence above
might react by accepting a cup of coffee if
Interprets the perlocutionary act.

13.  The
illocutionary force of an utterance is
what really counts…
 “I´ll be back.” (Terminator)
warning
promise
prediction

14.  Examples:
Give me an apple.
 Locutionary act: the utterance itself.
 Illocutionary act: Request, command.
 Perlocutionary act (presumably): A passes
B an apple.

15. IFIDS
 Or, Illocutionary Force Indicating Device
 The most obvious for indicating the
illocutionary force is an expression shown
in (6). The verb shown can be called a
performative verb (Vp).
6. I (Vp) you that…

16.  Speakers sometimes perform their speech
act…
 Him: Can I talk to Mary?
 Her: No, She`s not here.
 Him: I am asking you – can I talk to her?
 Her: And I am telling you – SHE IS NOT
HERE!

17. OTHER IFIDS
 STRESS
 INTONATION
 WORD ORDER
e.g.
 You´re going (I tell you)
 You´re going? (I request confirmation?
 Are you going? (I ask you if…)

18. FELICITY CONDITIONS
 APPROPRIATE CIRCUMSTANCES FOR THE
PERFORMANCE OF A SPEECH ACT TO BE
RECOGNIZED AS SUCH.
e.g. (9)
I sentence you to six months in prison…
In example 9, above, the performance will be infelicitous
(inappropriate) if the speaker is not a specific person in a
special context.

19. Austin, felicity conditions:
 (A) i. There must be a conventional procedure
having a conventional effect.
ii. The circumstances and persons must be
appropriate as specified in the procedure
(Note that these procedures must be such
that verbal action suffices to achieve
some effect; compare: *I hereby fry this egg)
 (B) The procedure must be executed
completely and correctly.

20.  C) Usually,
i. the persons must have the requisite
thoughts, feelings and intentions, as
specified in the procedure, and
ii. if consequent conduct is specified,
then the relevant parties must do so.

21. Felicity conditions
 General e.g. they understand the language
A promise…
 Content e.g. a promise of a future act of the
speaker
 Preparatory e.g. 1)the event will not happen by
itself 2) the effect will have a beneficial effect.
 Sincerity e.g. must be genuine
 Essential e.g. when uttering a promise, one
changes a non-obligation to an obligation

22. The performative Hypothesis
 Underlying every utterance (U) there is a
clause containing a performative verb
(VP). The basic format of the underlying
clause is shown in (10).
(10) I (hereby) Vp you (that) U
 See 11 and 12 a and b

23. The performative Hypothesis
 Explicit performatives
 What would the performatives verbs…?
 Implicit performatives
 Sometimes a stronger version of the
utterance.

24. SEARLE´S CLASSIFICATION OF SPEECH ACTS
A better choice to classify SA´s?
 Declarations: which effect immediate changes in the
institutional state of affairs and which tend to rely on
elaborate extra-linguistic insititutions
(excommunicating, declaring war, christening, firing
from employment)
 Expressives: which express a psychological state
(thanking, apologizing, welcoming, congratulating)

25. Searle's classification of
speech acts:
 representatives: which commit the
speaker to the truth of the expressed
proposition (paradigm cases:
asserting, concluding, etc.)
 directives: which are attempts by the
speaker to get the addressee to do
something ( requesting, questioning)
 commissives: which commit the speaker
to some future course of action
(Promising, threatening, offering)

26. Direct speech acts
As shown in (20) there is a relationship between the
three structural forms
declarative, interrogative, imperative) and the three
general communicative functions
(statement, question, command/request)
 You eat bread (declarative)
 Do you eat bread? (interrogative)
 Eat bread. (Imperative)
You wear a seat belt. (declarative) you wear a seat belt?
(interrogative)
Wear a seat belt! (imperative)

27. Indirect Speech Acts
 Whenever there is an indirect relationship
between a structure and function.
(It´s Winter and the window is open…)
 It´s cold in here… (indirect)
 I hereby request that you close the window. (Indir.)

28. Direct or Indirect?
 Move out of the way!
 You make a better door than a window.
 Pindy!!
 You´re standing in front of the Tele..
Questions or requests?
 Could you pass the salt?
 Would you open this?

29. Speech events
 It is an activity in which participants interact
via language in some conventional way to
arrive at so me outcome.
 See page 35…
 In this case “do you have a minute” will
portray the “we mean more than what we
say.”

30. Politeness and
Interaction

31.  politenessshould be understood as
strategic conflict-avoidance can be
found, for example, in the view that the
basic social role of politeness is in its ability
to function as a way of controlling
potential aggression between
interactional parties (Brown & Levinson
1987:1)

32.  Politenessis connected with avoiding
disruption and maintaining the social
equilibrium and friendly relations (Leech
1983:17, 82)

33.  politenessis involved in social
indexing, that is, politeness is socially
appropriate behavior and what is socially
appropriate depends on the speaker’s
social position in relation to the hearer.

34. Politeness and interaction
 BASIC CONCEPTS
 Much of what we say and communicate is
determined by our social relationships. A
linguistic interaction is necessarily a social
interaction
External factors relating to social
distance/closeness are established prior to an
interaction:
 relative status of the participants as
determined by factors like age and power
-

35.  Speakers who see themselves as lower
status tend to mark social distance
between themselves.
 Higher status speakers use address forms
that include a tittle and a last name, but
not the first name (Mrs. Jones, Mr.
Adams, Dr. Miller)

36.  Internal factors (amount of imposition, degree of
friendliness) are negotiated during an interaction
 can result in the initial social distance changing
and being marked as less or more during the
course of the interaction (e.g., moving to first
name basis)
- these factors are more relevant to p
participants whose social relationships are
actually in the process of being worked out
within the interaction

37.  Both types of factors (external/internal)
have an influence on what we say and
how we are interpreted
 interpretation includes also evaluations
such as 'rude', 'considerate' or 'thoughtful'
which represent an additional aspect of
communication perceived in terms of
politeness

38.  General idea of politeness:
Fixed concept of social behavior/etiquette
within a culture, involves certain general
principles as being
tactful, generous, modest, sympathetic
towards others.

39. Narrower concept of politeness within an
interaction:
 face = the public self-image of a person
(emotional and social sense of self one
has and expects everyone else to
recognize)

40.  politeness
= the means employed to show
awareness of another person's face,
-showing awareness for a socially distant
person's face , i.e, respect, deference
-showing awareness for a socially close
person's face, i.e, friendliness, solidarity

41. Example (student to teacher)
a. Excuse me, Mr. Buckingham, but can I
talk to you for a minute?
b. Hey, Bucky, got a minute
 Different kinds of politeness are
associated and marked linguistically with
the assumption of relative social
distance/closeness

42. Variables in Linguistic Etiquette
Social power
 Social hierarchies
 Age
 Gender
 Language impairment
Social distance
 Intimates and strangers

43. POLITENESS MAXIMS: Leech, 1983
 Tact: minimize cost/maximize benefit to the other
person
Could I interrupt you for half a second – what was the website
address?
 Generosity: maximize cost/minimize benefit to yourself
Could I copy the web address?
 Approbation: minimize dispraise/maximize praise of the other
person
Mary you’re always so efficient – do you have copy of that web
address?
 Modesty: maximize dispraise/minimize praise of yourself
Oh I’m so stupid – I didn’t make a not of that web address. Did
you?

44.  Agreement: minimize disagreement/maximize
agreement between self and other
Yes, of course you’re right, but your decision might
make her very unhappy
 Sympathy: minimize antipathy/maximize sympathy
between self and other
I was very sorry to hear about your father’s death
Additional maxim proposed by Cruse (2000):
 Consideration: minimize discomfort or displeasure/
maximize comfort or pleasure of other
Visitor to patient in hospital: You’re lucky to be in
here, it’s raining outside (Billy Connolly)

45. Face
 Withineveryday social interaction people
generally behave as if their expectations
concerning their face wants (i.e. public
self-image) will be respected.
 The notion of face is derived from
Goffman (1967) and the English folk term
("losing face")

46.  "the positive social value a person
effectively claims for himself by the line
others [from others]assume he has taken
during a particular contact...an image of
self delineated in terms of approved
social attributes“ (Goffman 1955/67)

47.  [Face] is something that is emotionally
invested, and that can be
lost, maintained, or enhanced, and must
be constantly attended to in interaction.
In general, people cooperate (and
assume each other's cooperation) in
maintaining face in interaction, such
cooperation being based on the mutual
vulnerability of face. (Brown and Levinson
1978:66

48.  Face is a sense of worth that comes from
knowing one's status and reflects concern
with the congruency between one's
performance or appearance and one's
real worth. (Huang 1987:71)

49. face threatening act:
 speaker says something that represents a
threat to another individual's expectations
regarding self-image

50. face saving act:
 speaker says something to lessen a possible threat
Situation: Young neighbor is playing loud
music late at night. Older couple cannot
sleep.
 A: I'm going to tell him to stop that awful noise
right now!
 B: Perhaps you could just ask him if he's going to
stop soon because it's getting a bit late and
people need to get to sleep.

51.  negativeface: need to be
independent, to have freedom of
action, not be imposed on by others
 positive
face: need to be
accepted/liked, to be treated as a
member of the same group, to know that
wants are shared by others.

52. Brown and Levinson (1978/87) in
 Negative face as the individual’s desire for
freedom of action and freedom from
imposition.
 positive face as the individual’s desire that
her/his wants be appreciated in social
interaction, and

53. Negative politeness
A face saving act oriented to a person's
negative face tends to show
deference, emphasizes the importance of
the other's time or concerns and may
include an apology for the imposition

54. Positive politeness
A face saving act concerned with the
person's positive face will tend to show
solidarity, emphasize that both speakers
want the same thing and have a
common goal

55.  You are about to land in the U.S. You want to
fill your immigration form but realize that you
do not have a pen. Fortunately, there is a
person sitting next to you.
 First choice: say something or not
 rummage in your bag, search through
your pockets, go back to the bag
 other person offers a pen

56.  Many people prefer to have their needs
recognized by others without having to
express them (less imposition) -- clearly a
case of communicating more than what
is said.

57. Off record
 statements
not directly addressed to
another person (i.e. hints)
 Uh,
I forgot my pen.
 Where is the pen.
 Hmm, I wonder where I put my pen

58. On record
Directly address the other person to express
your needs
Using imperative forms is known as bald on
record (speaker assumes he/she has power
over the other)
 Give me a pan
 Lend me your pen

59. Mitigating devices
 (e.g.'please', 'would you') can be used to
soften the demand
Caution: Not all imperatives are commands
 Havesome more cake
 Gimme that wet umbrella

60.  Inemergency situations, commands have
no social/politeness component
 Don'ttouch that!
 Get out of here!
 Run!

61.  “Negativepoliteness is concerned with
other people’s need not to be intruded or
imposed upon
 “Positive
politeness” is concerned with
their need for inclusion and social
approval.

62. A positive politeness strategy leads the
requester to appeal to a common
goal, even friendship
 How about letting me use you pen?
 Hey, buddy, I'd appreciate it if
you'd let me use your pen

63. A greater risk of refusal, therefore often
preceded by 'getting-to-know-you-talk' to
establish common ground …
 Hi,
How's it going? Okay if I sit here? We
must be interested in the same crazy stuff.
You take a lot of notes too, huh? Say, do
me a big favor and let me use one of your
pens…

64. A negative politeness strategy is more
commonly performed in face saving
acts
 Could you lend me a pen?
 I'm sorry to bother you, but can I ask you for a
pen?
 I know you're busy, might I ask you if - em - if
you happen to have an extra pen

65. features:
- modal verbs
- apologies for the imposition
- Hesitations
- questions (even asking for permission to ask a
question)
+ more indirect approach softens refusal

66.  Face saving acts on record are less
direct, longer, less clear, with a more
complex structure, showing greater
effort, concern for face (politeness)