Speech Act

Speech act is a technical term in linguistics and the philosophy of language. The contemporary use of the term goes back to John L. Austin’s doctrine of locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts. Many scholars identify ’speech acts’ with illocutionary acts, rather than locutionary or perlocutionary acts. Like with the notion of illocutionary acts, there are different opinions concerning the question what being a speech act amounts to. The extension of speech acts is commonly taken to include such acts as promising, ordering, greeting, warning, inviting someone and congratulating.

Speech act is a technical term in linguistics and the philosophy of language. The contemporary use of the term goes back to John L. Austin’s doctrine of locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts. Many scholars identify ’speech acts’ with illocutionary acts, rather than locutionary or perlocutionary acts. Like with the notion of illocutionary acts, there are different opinions concerning the question what being a speech act amounts to. The extension of speech acts is commonly taken to include such acts as promising, ordering, greeting, warning, inviting someone and congratulating.

Examples

• Greeting (in saying, “Hi John!”, for instance), apologizing (“Sorry for that!”), describing something (“It is snowing”), asking a question (“Is it snowing?”), making a request and giving an order (“Could you pass the salt?” and “Drop your weapon or I’ll shoot you!”), or making a promise (“I promise I’ll give it back”) are typical examples of “speech acts” or “illocutionary acts”.
• In saying, “Watch out, the ground is slippery”, Mary performs the speech act of warning Peter to be careful.
• In saying, “I will try my best to be at home for dinner”, Peter performs the speech act of promising to be at home in time.
• In saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, please give me your attention”, Mary requests the audience to be quiet.
• In saying, “Race with me to that building over there!”, Peter challenges Mary.

Classifying illocutionary speech acts

Searle (1975) has set up the following classification of illocutionary speech acts:

• Assertive = speech acts that commit a speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition

• Directives = speech acts that are to cause the hearer to take a particular action, e.g. requests,    commands and advice

• commissives = speech acts that commit a speaker to some future action, e.g. promises and oaths

• Expressive = speech acts that expresses on the speaker’s attitudes and emotions towards the proposition, e.g. congratulations, excuses and thanks
• Declarations = speech acts that change the reality in accord with the proposition of the declaration, e.g. baptisms, pronouncing someone guilty or pronouncing someone husband and wife?

SPEECH SITUATION

Contexts of language uses such as ceremonies, fights, hunts, classrooms, conferences, parties.

WHAT IS AN UTTERANCE?

Definition

1. An utterance is a natural unit of speech bounded by breaths or pauses.
2. An utterance is a complete unit of talk, bounded by the speaker’s silence.

Discussion

Utterance does not have a precise linguistic definition. Phonetically an utterance is a unit of speech bounded by silence. In dialogue, each turn by a speaker may be considered an utterance.

Linguists sometimes use utterance to simply refer to a unit of speech under study. The corresponding unit in written language is text.

SPEECH COMMUNITY

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Speech community is a concept in sociolinguistics that describes a more or less discrete group of people who use language in a unique and mutually accepted way among themselves.

Speech communities can be members of a profession with a specialized jargon, distinct social groups like high school students or hip hop fans (see also African American Vernacular English), or even tight-knit groups like families and friends. In addition, online and other mediated communities, such as many internet forums, often constitute speech communities. Members of speech communities will often develop slang or jargon to serve the group’s special purposes and priorities.