Lingua Inglese 3 Lecture 5 DOTT.SSA MARIA IVANA LORENZETTI 1 Searle s Classification of Speech Acts Representatives: the speaker is committed in varying degrees ees to the truth of the expressed essed proposition, i.e. affirm, believe, conclude, deny, report etc. Directives: the speaker tries to get the hearer to do something, i.e. ask, challenge, order, command, insist, request etc. Commissives: the speaker is committed in varying degrees to a certain course of action, i.e. promise, swear, vow, guarantee, pledge etc. 2 Lecture 05 12/03/2013 1
Searle s Classification of Speech Acts (2) Expressives: the speaker expresses an attitude about a state of affairs, i.e. apologize, thank, congratulate etc. Declarations: They are represented by those acts which bring about something by declaring it to exist. The defining characteristic of this class is that the successful performance of one of its members brings about the correspondence between the prepositional content and reality, i.e. I resign, I baptize, you re fired 3 Speech Acts: Examples Representative/Assertive (I insist that) he is inadequate Directive I advise you to meet and talk to him Why don t you meet and talk to him? Commissive I promise I ll do it I ll do that, be sure Expressive I congratulate you! You re great! Declarations I bet a hundred pounds he will marry her. I declare the session open 4 Lecture 05 12/03/2013 2
Differences in Speech Acts Representatives/Assertives and Expressives are all intended to affect the addressee s mental sets: What they know and think (Assertives) Their social attitudes (Expressives) Directives are designed to get others to do things Commissives and Declarations are contractual, establishing states of affairs in the world, with consequences for the addressees 5 Syntactic Properties of Illocutionary Acts Representatives: I verb (that)+s I suggest that we go to the cinema Directives: I verb you+you fut. vol. verb (NP) (Adv) I order you to go out Commissives: I verb (you)+i fut. vol. verb (NP) (Adv) I promise you that I will come tomorrow Expressives: I verb you+i/you VP with a gerundive transformation I apologize for disturbing you Declarations: I verb you+np be pred I appoint you chairman 6 Lecture 05 12/03/2013 3
Performative vs. Descriptive I promise I ll be there Vs. I promised I d be there She promises she ll be there INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS It s very cold in here Your cake must be very nice BLEND OF ILLOCUTIONARY FORCES What a lovely music! You re not telling me the truth It s too hot with that door closed 7 Request Propositional Content Future act (A) of addressee Preparatory Conditions Addressee is able to do A. Speaker believes the addressee is able to do A. It is not obvious that the addressee will provide the information without being asked Sincerity Conditions Speaker wants this information Essential Conditions The utterance counts as an attempt to elicit this information from the addressee Examples: Is Peter coming? Who is coming? 8 Lecture 05 12/03/2013 4
Request: Examples You ll join me there, won t you? Can you pass me the salt, please? Will you pass me the salt, please? Could you pass me the salt, please? I d like you to join me there. Please, join me here. I feel so lonely, here. e I miss you so much. What about joining me there? I m sure you d love being here with me. I ll come back, if you don t join me. 9 Question Propositional Content Any ypropositionp Preparatory Conditions Speaker does not know the answer. It is obvious that the addressee will do A of his own accord Sincerity Conditions Speaker wants the addressee to do A Essential Conditions The utterance counts as an attempt to get the addressee to do A 10 Lecture 05 12/03/2013 5
Question: Alternative Ways What s the time? Who s oscoming? How long will you stay? What s the capital of New Zealand? I wonder who s coming I don t know who is coming Who s coming? It would be useful to know who is coming, if we have to cook a lunch for you all. I m sure that you know who is coming. 11 Directives: Alternative Ways Rhetorical Questions Isn t it time you treated yourself to a holiday? Why not try a ClubMed vacation? Advice You should experience the many delights of Wales Implicit Command or Advice Our spa treatment is certainly worth trying Covered Command For those who agree that doing nothing is the best form of relaxation, there s always a café in the sunshine 12 Lecture 05 12/03/2013 6
Directives: Use of Imperatives Come and see our beautiful lakes Let the sunshine in your heart. Come to bath. Eat a piece of our home-made cake in the historic French Café 13 Direct vs. Indirect Speech Acts statement question order declarative, interrogative, imperative grammatical performatives? they seem to indicate speech act types, suggesting a match between sentence type and illocutionary force when the sentence type and speech act match : a direct speech act 14 Lecture 05 12/03/2013 7
Indirect Speech Acts But as we ve seen, the basic sentence types can express all kinds of speech acts: 1. There s the door 2. Would you mind handing me the salt? 3. Leave me, then (and I ll jump in the river ) DIRECT INDIRECT 1. Statement Order 2. Question Request (for action) 3. Order/Statement Threat 15 How do We Recognise and Interpret Indirect Speech Acts? i.e. what makes an indirect speech act felicitous? Searle s explanation: the literal meaning of the utterance must address one of the felicity conditions of the speech act in question 16 Lecture 05 12/03/2013 8
Example: Recognising and Interpreting an Indirect Request Can you pass the salt? Searle s conditions for requests: [S=speaker, H=hearer, A=future action] Preparatory: H is able to perform A. Propositional: S predicates a future act A of H. Sincerity: S wants H to do A Essential: The utterance counts as an attempt by S to get H to do A 17 But Literal Meaning May not Be the Whole Story Cf. Are you able to pass the salt? OK: Can you please pass me the salt??? Are you please able to pass me the salt? there is an idiomatic element in some indirect speech acts, even if the literal meaning still seems to be accessible 18 Lecture 05 12/03/2013 9
Why Indirect Speech Acts? One common reason: politeness May I ask you the time? (speaker-action) action) Could you tell me the time? (hearer-action) Reasons of politeness. It is not always possible to be explicit about something we want to communicate We must assume some dual illocutionary force in a given act, one literal an direct and one non-literal and indirect. In such cases, the indirect force is the one that prevails over the other Why can t you shut up? It s cold in here 19 Exercise: Identify Speech Acts and their Illocutionary Force Today I announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America. DECLARATION, EXPLICIT PERFORMATIVE You took the last cookie! DIRECTIVE, INDIRECT SPEECH ACT Sorry, I didn t mean to hurt you. EXPRESSIVE, PRIMARY PERFORMATIVE I thank you so much for your kindness and devotion. EXPRESSIVE, EXPLICIT PERFORMATIVE Please believe me. I won t disappoint you again. DIRECTIVE+COMMISSIVE, PRIMARY PERFORMATIVE 20 Lecture 05 12/03/2013 10
Exercise: Identify Speech Acts and their Illocutionary Force (2) What s the time? DIRECTIVE, PRIMARY Passengers are requested to keep their seatbelts fastened during take-off. DIRECTIVE, EXPLICIT This gun is loaded. DIRECTIVE/COMMISSIVE, INDIRECT You are not authorised to use someone else s password DIRECTIVE, EXPLICIT 21 Exercise: Identify Speech Acts and their Illocutionary Force (3) I swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. COMMISSIVE; EXPLICIT PERFORMATIVE When will you stop being so noisy? DIRECTIVE; INDIRECT SPEECH ACT I shouldn t have said that! I am terribly sorry. EXPRESSIVE; PRIMARY PERFORMATIVE I declare the conference open. DECLARATION; EXPLICIT PERFORMATIVE 22 Lecture 05 12/03/2013 11
Exercise: Identify Speech Acts and their Illocutionary Force (4) I think you have made the right choice. REPRESENTATIVE; PRIMARY PERFORMATIVE I ll pick you at 5 pm. COMMISSIVE; PRIMARY PERFORMATIVE I suggest you saw a psychiatrist as soon as you can. DIRECTIVE; EXPLICIT PERFORMATIVE The floor is wet DIRECTIVE; INDIRECT SPEECH ACT 23 Exercise: Constative or Performative? The minister congratulated us on our outstanding performance. CONSTATIVE Mark is playing guitar. CONSTATIVE I object, your honour. PERFORMATIVE 24 Lecture 05 12/03/2013 12
Exercise: Constative or Performative? (2) The man lives near the railway station. CONSTATIVE You are charged with theft. PERFORMATIVE She ll apologize for her behaviour. CONSTATIVE I ordered them to close the door CONSTATIVE 25 Exercise: Constative or Performative? (3) She is thanking her colleagues for their support CONSTATIVE I advise to choose a different topic PERFORMATIVE We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause PERFORMATIVE The couple live in Henry Street CONSTATIVE 26 Lecture 05 12/03/2013 13