SPEECH ACTS

A speech act is an utterance that a speaker makes to achieve an intended effect. Some of the functions which are carried out using speech acts are offering an apology, greeting, request, complaint, invitation, compliment, or refusal. A speech act might contain just one word or several words or sentences. For example, “Thanks” and “Thank you for always being there for me. I really appreciate it” both show appreciation regardless of the length of the statement.

According to J. L. Austin (1962), a philosopher of language and the developer of the Speech Act Theory, there are three types of acts in every utterance, given the right circumstances or context.

LOCUTIONARY ACT

• It is the actual act of uttering.

• “Please do the dishes.”

• Locution means the phrase or sentence that has meaning.

ILLOCUTIONARY ACT

• It is the social function of what is said.

• The performance of the act of saying something with a specific intention or illocution.

• By uttering the locution “Please do the dishes,” the speaker requests the addressee to wash the dishes.

PERLOCUTIONARY ACT

• It is the resulting act of what is said. This effect is based on the particular context in which the speech act was mentioned.

• This happens when what the speaker says has effect on the listener or a perlocution.

• It is the resulting act of what is said.

“Please do the dishes”

Locutionary - SAYING OF THE  WORDS

Illocutionary - SPEAKER REQUESTS THE RECEIVER TO  WASH THE DISHES

Perlocutionary - RECEIVER WASHING THE DISHES

INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

• When a speaker does not explicitly state the intended meaning behind the utterance.

• They are different in force (i.e., intention) from the inferred speech act.

**“Could you pass the rice?”

**INFERRED SPEECH ACT - Do you have the ability to hand over the rice?

INDIRECT SPEECH ACT - Please pass the rice

PERFORMATIVES

• Statements which enable the speaker to perform something just by stating it.

Austin also introduced the concept of performative utterances: statements which enable the speaker to perform something just by stating it. In this manner, verbs that execute the speech act that they intend to effect are called performatives. A performative utterance said by the right person under the right circumstances results in a change in the world. Note that certain conditions have to be met when making a performative utterance.

For example, the phrase “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” when uttered by an authorized person such as a judge will have the actual effect of binding a couple in marriage. However, if the same statement is uttered to the same couple in the same place by someone who is not authorized to marry them—as in the case of the accompanying picture, a robot—then there is no effect whatsoever because a condition was not met.

__Searle’s Classifications of Speech Act

__• As a response to Austin’s Speech Act Theory, John Searle (1976), a professor from the University of California, Berkeley, classified illocutionary acts into five distinct categories.

ASSERTIVE

It is a type of illocutionary act in which the speaker expresses belief about the truth of a proposition. Some examples of an assertive act are suggesting, putting forward, swearing, boasting, and concluding.
Example:

No one makes better pancakes than I do.

DIRECTIVE

It is a type of illocutionary act in which the speaker tries to make the addressee perform an action. Some examples of a directive act are asking, ordering, requesting, inviting, advising, and begging.

Example:

Please close the door.

COMMISSIVE

It is a type of illocutionary act which commits the speaker to doing something in the future. Examples of a commissive act are promising, planning, vowing, and betting.
Example:

From now on, I will participate in our group activity.

EXPRESSIVE

It is a type of illocutionary act in which the speaker expresses his/her feelings or emotional reactions. Some examples of an expressive act are thanking, apologizing, welcoming, and deploring.
Example:

I am so sorry for not helping out in our group projects and letting you do all the work.

DECLARATION

It is a type of illocutionary act which brings a  change in the external situation. Simply put, declarations bring into existence or cause the state of affairs which they refer to. Some examples of declarations are blessing, firing, baptizing, bidding, passing a sentence, and excommunicating.
Example:

You are fired!

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

• It is the degree to which a communicator’s goals are achieved through effective and appropriate interaction

DELL HYMES 1972

Communicative competence is that aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings

• It is the field of communication that focuses on how people use message to generate meanings within and across various contexts and cultures.

• It is the management of messages for the purpose of creating meaning.

• “The ability to interact well with others” (SPITZBERG, 1988).

MEANING OF “WELL”

It refers to: accuracy, clarity, comprehensibility, coherence, expertise, effectiveness and

appropriateness

“IT IS THE SITUATIONAL  ABILITY TO SET

REALISTIC AND APPROPRIATE GOALS AND TO MAXIMIZE THEIR ACHIEVEMENT” (FRIEDRICH, 1994).

DEFINING COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE HYMES (1972)

• Communicative Competence refers to “what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community”.

• In Hymes’ view, a person who acquires communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for using feasible and appropriate language in relation to the situational context.

CANALE & SWAIN (1980)

• Linguistic /Grammatical Competence (Accuracy)

• Sociolinguistic Competence

• Discourse Competence

• Strategic Competence
  

LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

• It refers to what Chomsky calls linguistic competence and involves the mastering of the linguistic code including vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, spelling and word formation.

• Black (1995) compressed these ideas as competence in the areas of gramar (syntax and morphology), vocabulary (words and their meanings) and pronunciation and the writing system (phonological rules and mechanics of writing).

DISCOURSE COMPETENCE

• It deals with the interpretation of individual message elements and is also related to the ability for combining ideas to achieve cohesion in form and coherence in thought.

• Yano(n.d) describes discourse competence as “the knowledge of rules regarding the cohesión (grammatical links) and coherence (appropriate combination of communicative function) of various types of discourse.

It concerns the mastery of how to combine grammatical forms and meanings to achieve a

unified spoken or written text in different genres.

SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

• It refers to the extent to which utterances are produced and understood appropriately in different __social contexts.

• __According to Black (1995) this component of communicative competence is the ability to choose  appropriate speech varieties to use in particular  social situations.

• To Yano (n.d.), it is the pragmatic aspect of various speech acts, namely, the cultural values, norms, and other socio-cultural conventions in social context.

• In communicating, we need to consider the context that is-the situation. Is it formal? Is it private of for public consumption? Is it for an individual or crowd?

STRATEGIC COMPETENCE

• It refers to the coping strategies used to start, finish, maintain or repair communication so as to overcome limitations in language knowledge.

• Black (1995) stated it as a more general ability to manage communication effectively, overcoming any mistakes or other difficulties in order to accomplish one goals.

• Yano (n.d.) explained it as knowledge of non-verbal strategies to compensate for breakdowns, such as recognizing discourse structure, activating background knowledge, contextual guessing, and tolerating ambiguity.

Grice as cited by Black (1995) introduced 4 conversational maxims every individual should observe in order to share or give acceptable inputs during conversations. Hudson as cited by Black (1995) quoted Grice in that “we should contribute meaningfully to the accepted purpose and direction of conversation.”

4 CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS

• Relevance is simply saying things which are relevant to the conversation.

• Quality involves credibility or honesty. How true and correct are we saying?

• Quantity in conversations implies that we talk only of what is needed, no more, no less.

• Manner is saying things with clarity and order. Speak the truth as briefly and directly as possible to avoid ambiguity.