National open university of nigeria school of arts and social sciences
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- 1.0. INTRODUCTION
- 2.0. UNIT OBJECTIVES
- 93 3.0 MAIN CONTENT
| Unit 2: Speech Acts Theory Contents 1.0 Introduction 2.0. Objectives 3.0. Main Content Speech Acts An Introduction Performative Verbs 3.3.Locutionary, Illocutionary and Perlocutionary Acts 3.4.Self-assessed Exercises Felicity Conditions Direct and Indirect Speech Acts 4.0. Conclusion 5.0. Summary 6.0. Tutor-marked Assignment 7.0. References/Further Reading 1.0. INTRODUCTION The Speech Act Theory is one of the earliest theories proposed in Pragmatics. J.L. Austin in his popular book How to do Things with Words observes that whenever we make any utterance, we are performing an act. Such acts may include requesting, questioning, commanding and so forth. In general sense, we can know the act performed by a sentence when it is uttered. In this Unit, we shall be looking at how we perform acts through our utterances. We shall also look at some types of speech act. 2.0. UNIT OBJECTIVES At the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following. • explain what we mean by speech act • identify performative verbs when you see them in an utterance • differentiate between direct and indirect speech act 93 3.0 MAIN CONTENT 3.1 Speech Act Every sentence we make is designed to perform certain functions. Such functions include, just informing people about something, warning, ordering somebody or a group of people to do something, questioning somebody about a fact, thanking somebody fora gift or an act of kindness, and so forth. When we utter statements, we expect our listeners to recognize and understand the functions such statements are meant to perform. For instance, when we ask a question, we expect our addressee to realize that we are requesting for information. If they failed to appreciate our intention, then we can say they have misunderstood us. This is what is termed as speech act. The theory of speech act therefore states that whenever we utter a statement, we are attempting to accomplish something with words (see Austin, 1962 and Searle, 1969). Below, we have a table indicating some utterances and their forms and their functions. Utterance Form Function Did you see him yesterday Interrogative Question My son is a medical doctor Declarative Statement Shut the door please Imperative Command Other examples of utterances that perform some speech act. 15.1. I pronounce you husband and wife (uttered by a pastor when joining a couple together) 15.2. I hereby sentence you to ten years in jail (uttered by a judge in a court) 15.3. I promise to pay you by month end (uttered by a debtor to a creditor) Download 0.49 Mb. Share with your friends:
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