Speech Acts

Speech Acts

1. When we speak we are also 'acting in the world'.

   • What we say has a descriptive meaning, but it may also have an effect on those around us, causing them to act, or think, or respond in particular ways to what we say.
     • Searle's five types of speech acts
       • John Searle classified the purpose of different speech acts under 5 categories
         • Declarations
           • The speaker declares something that has the potential to bring about a change in the world.
         • Assertives
           • The speaker asserts an idea, opinion, or suggestion.
         • Expressives
           • The speaker states something about their psychological attitudes and their attitudes towards a situation.
         • Directives
           • The speaker intends to get the listener to do something. This could be by giving an order, offering advice, or making a request.
         • Commissives
           • The speaker commits to doing something in the future. This could be making a promise, a plan, a vow, or a bet.
     • Speech act theory
       • Is concerned with the way words can be used to not only give information but also to perform certain actions, or to cause others to perform them.
         • language is said to perform...
           • Locutionary acts
             • A locutionary act is the basic production of an utterance, comprising all of its verbal, social, and rhetorical meanings.
           • Illocutionary act
             • Is the active result of the implied meaning from the locutionary act.
           • Perlocutionary acts
             • Is the effect the locutionary and illocutionary acts have on the listener.
     • Direct and indirect speech acts
       • Pragmatics
         • Direct speech refers to a speech act that has a direct relationship between the type of sentence and its function.
       • In contrast
         • Indirect speech acts occur when there is an indirect relationship between the type of sentence and the function.