Speech Act Theory

People can do many things with speech. They can make promises, lay bets, warnings, offer congratulations, or swear on oath. When you say, “Be careful! Mr. Potter is in his office.” you not only say something, but you also warn someone.

The study of how we do things with sentences is the study of speech acts. In studying speech acts, we are dealing with the context of the utterance. “Mr. Potter is in his office.” may be a warning, but in some cases, the same sentence may be a promise, or merely information, depending on circumstances.

Speech act theory aims to tell us when we appear to ask questions but actually we are giving orders, or when we say something with special intonation and mean the opposite. Thus, when your friend says, “Excuse me, but you sit on my book,” he actually means “Don’t sit on my book!” It is not merely information, and you will not say “Thank you for informing,” without doing anything.

Normally, the speech act is a sentence, but it can be a word or a word or phrase as long as it follows the rules necessary to accomplish the intention. When one speaks, one performs an act. Speech act stresses the intent of the act as a whole. According to Searle, understanding the speaker’s intention is essential to capture the meaning. Without the speaker’s intention, it is impossible to understand the words as a speech act.

John R. Searle (1983) says that there are three types of speech act:

1. Locutionary acts

2. Illocutionary acts

3. Perlocutionary acts

Locutionary act is an act of saying something with the utterance’s exact meaning. Sometimes, locutionary act is merely called the act of saying something. In locutionary act, the speaker’s intention is not important. Thus, “I’m thirsty” is mere information to the hearer that the speaker is thirsty.

Illocutionary act is an act of doing something with a certain intention and function. Illocutionary act is sometimes called the act of doing something. When someone says “I’m thirsty.” he actually requests the hearer to take him a drink.

Perlocutionary act is an act to give an influence to the hearer. Sometimes, it is called the act of affecting someone.

Searle classifies illocutionary acts into five categories:

1. Assertives

An act in which the speaker commits to the truth of the corresponding proposition (i.e. He asserts the proposition), such as: stating, suggesting, complaining, claiming, and boasting.

2. Directives

Any illocutionary act which essentially involves the speaker trying to get the hearer to behave in some required way, example: ordering, commanding, requesting, advising, recommending, etc.

3. Expressives

Any illocutionary act to express the speaker’s psychological expression towards something, such as: thanking, congratulating, pardoning, blaming, condoling, etc.

4. Commisives

Any illocutionary act which essentially involves the committing to behave in some required way

5. Declarations

An act which relates the utterance with some state of affairs, for example: resigning, dismissing, naming, appointing, etc.

Actually, every utterance is some kind of speech act, even when there is no explicit performative verb. In “It is raining,” we recognize an implicit performance of stating. On the other hand, “Is it raining?” is a performance of questioning, just as “Leave!” is a performance of ordering.

References:

Fromkin, V, et al. 1990. An Introduction to Language. Australia: Hancourt Jovanovich Group

Hurford, James. R. 1983. Semantics: A Coursebook. England: Cambridge University Press.

Leech, Geofrey. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. Edinburgh: Longman Group Limited.

What a good idea!

The most common mistake I find among non-native English speakers when they pronounce the word "idea" is that they put the stress on the first syllable. They say "/AYdie/" instead of "/ayDIE/". If you consult the dictionaries, the correct pronunciation should be "/ayDIE/". Now practice these words:

> idea: /aiDIE/
> good idea: /gud aiDIE/
> what a good idea: /wat e gud aiDIE/

Keep practicing!

Variations of metonimy

Since there are a lot of associations between objects, there are several variations of metonimy.

1. The sign for person/ thing symbolized.
Example:
> You must address The Chair.
(The Chair represents "The Leader")

2. The container for the thing contained.
Example:

> The cattle boils. (Of course, what boils is the water inside the cattle, not the cattle itself)

> The whole city went out to see the President. ("the whole city" means "all of the citizens")

> He was dead because he had drunk the fatal cup. (i think none would like to drink a cup. What he drank was the content inside the cup)

3. The instrument of the agent.
> The pen is mighter than the sword. (A pen is an instrument for writing, so it means that sometimes words can do something a sword can't)

4. The author for his works.
> I am reading Shakespeare. (means: I am reading one of Shakespeare's works.)

5. The name of a feeling or passion for the object.

> Oh my love, you are so beautiful. (The speaker mentions his feeling, "Oh my love," to address his lover.)

Neither- nor

“Neither” is a singular adjective and can be paired with “nor”. When using neither-nor, you are saying that not the first object and not the second object are behaving in a certain way.

Example:

-Neither Larry nor Suze went to the beach. (Larry didn't go to the beach, Suze didn't go to the beach)

- For some people, going to the local library is neither interesting nor enjoyable. (going to the local library is not interesting and not enjoyable)

X: I don't like broccoli

Y: Neither do I (means: “I don't like broccoli too”. You may hear some people say “Me neither,” this is colloquial and not grammatically correct. You wouldn't say “Me don't like broccoli”)

Usually, either-or and neither-nor are used for mentioning two items, but sometimes they appear with three items.

- Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat can stop me.

An older form for this correlative was nor-nor:

- Nor sun nor wind will ever strive to kiss you. (Shakespeare)

You can use “nor” independently. Examples:

- She will not go to university, nor will she look for a job.

- I have never seen him since then, nor do I expect to see him again.

- I didn't murder anybody, nor will I.

Take a look to the examples above, auxiliary verbs are placed before the subjects. Therefore, you wouldn't say “I will not go to the dentist, nor I will go shopping.” Instead, say “I will not go to the dentist, nor will I go shopping.”

Sometimes instead of “neither”, a negative form may function with the first item. In such case, “or” or “nor” may appear with the last item.

- Bella owns no money (n)or jewelry.

Using “never”, “seldom”, or “rarely” in the first clause:

- He has never (or “seldom”, “rarely”) spoken a bad word to his wife (n)or to anyone else.

The use of “nor” in the sentences above reinforces the negation.

Either- or

Either means “one or the other, but not both”.

- She wanted to eat either spaghetti or steak. (She wanted to eat spaghetti or steak, but not both)

- I can't remember if either Fred or George stole a car. (One of the boys stole a car, but not both)

Whether-or is sometimes used instead of either-or.

- Whether out of avarice or out of need, he asked for a much higher price for his property than it was worth.

If two singular subjects are connected by neither-nor or either-or, match the verb with whichever subject it's closer to.

- Neither Olive nor the boys eat mushrooms.

- Neither the boys nor Olive eats mushrooms.

- Either one rat or several mice are eating everything in the cupboard.

- Either several mice or one rat is eating everything in the cupboard.

Critical Age Hypothesis

Children under 12 years old will be able to learn any languages like the native speakers. When an American family lives in France, for instance, then they have a baby who then socializes with his French friends until, say, 7 years old, he will be able to speak French like a native speaker. This happens because in children under 12 years old, there is no lateralization. That is, the two hemispheres are not “separated” yet to be given their own function. They both are flexible, they can accept any commands. That is why patient with stroke under 12 can get 100% recovered in acquiring language, while adults just have little chance to get 100% recovered.

After 12, lateralization process begins. The brain will not be as flexible as before. Ability to speak like a native will decrease. That is why an adult learning foreign language will almost sound like a foreigner, even though he stays for a long time in the country where the language is used in everyday life. He may master the grammar rules, but still his accent will sound like a foreigner.

Participial phrase

Introduction

- Participle: a verbal that functions as an adjective.

- A participial phrase is a participle and its accompanying word or words.

Examples:

Interesting teacher : a teacher who is interesting

Interested student : a student who is interested

- There are two types of participles: present participles and past participles. Present participles end in -ing. Past participles of regular verbs end in –ed.

-Why using participial phrase?

The participial phrase is just another way to compound sentences. It provides a variety of sentence style to avoid producing boring paragraph.

Examples:

-The old man is my professor.

-He is carrying a brown bag.

You want to say that there is a man who is carrying a brown bag, and he is your professor. You can add “who is” to connect the sentences:

The old man who is carrying a brown bag is my professor. (you got a “complex sentence”)

Or, you can omit the “who is” and taa-daa... You created something called “participial phrase”.

The old man carrying a brown bag is my professor.

Now, take a look to these sentences:

-I walked into the room
-I found that everything was in a mess.

You wanted to say that you walked into a room, and when you got there, you found that everything was in a mess. To combine these two sentences, you may use a conjunction “and” , and you got a compound sentence:

I walked into the room and found that everything was in a mess.

Or change “walked” into “walking”, remove the first subject, and you got a participial phrase:

Walking into the room, I found that everything was in a mess.

Note:

to produce a participial phrase, use the same subject between the clauses, otherwise, you will produce a dangling construction.

Meaning:

• Cause

Bewitched by his charm, I lost my words.

Not wearing the uniform, he is not allowed to enter the class.

• Time

after: Having finished his job, he went out for coffee.

when: Opening the window, Lois was shocked by a green figure.

Placement

A participial phrase is flexible, a structure that can be placed at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence. However, don't place it too far from the word it modifies. In order to prevent confusion, a participial phrase must be placed as close to the noun it modifies as possible, and the noun must be clearly stated.

Entering her house, Susan found a dead body.

Susan, entering her house, found a dead body.

But consider what happens when the participial phrase moves to the end of the sentence:

Susan found a dead body entering her house.

Punctuation

• When a participial phrase begins a sentence, a comma should be placed after the phrase.

Arriving at the store, I found that it was closed.

- If the participial phrase is a restrictive phrase, no commas should be used:

The boy wearing the Dracula costume is my cousin.

(“the boy” may refer to any boy, so “wearing the Dracula costume” is attached without comma to point out which boy is the speaker’s cousin)

- If the participle or participial phrase comes in the middle of a sentence, it should be set off with commas only if it is non-restrictive phrase.

Sam, smelling something strange, asked Dean to call the police.

(“smelling something strange” is not used to point out which Sam is asking Dean to call the police)

• If a participial phrase comes at the end of a sentence, a comma usually precedes the phrase if it modifies the first subject in the sentence, but not if the phrase directly follows the word it modifies.

Clark nervously gazed the woman, attracted by her beauty.

(The participial phrase modifies Clark, not woman. If the comma is omitted, the participial phrase will modify the woman, not Clark)