Approaches to studies of discourse

(Schiffrin, 1994)
Speech Act. J. Austin and J. Searle  language
is not only used to describe the world, but to
perform a range of other actions that can be
indicated in the performance of the utterance
itself.
Example:
A : It’s still raining heavily.  act of speaking
B : Stay overnight here..
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 Austin (1962)
 A speech act is a sentence or utterance which
has both propositional meaning and
illocutionary force.
 A speech act which is performed indirectly is
sometimes knows an indirect speech act, such
as the speech act of requesting, which is
sometimes felt more polite.

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 Some theories
 ‘Utterances have 3 kinds of meaning:
propositional meaning (locutionary meaning)  the basic
literal meaning of the utterance which is conveyed by the
particular words and structures that the utterance contains.
illocutionary meaning (illocutionary force)  the real
meaning the speaker intends to express (the function of the
utterance we have in mind when we produce the utterance)..
Ex. I’ve just made some coffee…
 perlocutionary act/effect: the effect you intend your utterance
to have on the hearer. for example, to get the hearer drink
the coffee.
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 Five kinds of speech act classification (Searle)

 a) commissive: a speech act that commits the speaker

to doing something in the future, such as a promise or
a threat for example:
1. ‘If you keep working, you’ll get sick’.
2. ‘I’ll get you lunch in my birthday’.
3. I’m going to get it right next time.
4. We will not do that.
 In using a commissive, the speaker undertakes to
make the world fit the words (via the speaker).
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  b) declarative: a speech act which changes the
state of affairs in the world. For example, during
the wedding ceremony or in the court the act of
marriage or sentence are performed:
1. ‘I now pronounce you man and husband’
2. ‘The court decide you guilty’

 c) directive: a speech that has the function of

getting the listener to do something, such as
suggesting, a requests, or a command.
1. Pass me the salt, please!
2. ‘Why don’t you do the assignment?’ 5
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 d) expressive: a speech act in which the speaker
expresses feeling and attitudes about something,
such as apology, complaints, to thanks someone,
to congratulate someone.
1. It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?
2. The food is delicious.
e) representative: a speech act which describes
the state or event in the world, such as an
assertion, a claim or a report .
1. Yogyakarta is in central Java.
2 .I got B for “Discourse Studies” class.
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Analysis
M&A Data/speech act Com Declar Direc Expres Rep.
1.1 Take her far into the forest √
1.2 Find some secluded glade where she √
can pick wild flowers.
2.1 Yes, your majesty. √
3.1 And there, my faithful huntsman, you
will kill her. √
4 But your majesty, the little Princes... √

5.1 Silence! √
5.2 You know the penalty if you fail! √
6 Yes, your majesty √
7. But to make double sure you do not √
fail, bring back her heart in this.

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&A Data/speech act Locutionary Illocutionary
1
Analysis
Take her far into the forest. Taking her out of
the palace
kidnap

2 Find some secluded glade where she can Persuading P to Find the hidden place to
pick wild flowers. pick flowers do something

1 Yes, your majesty. Agreeing to do the Agreeing to do the

instruction instruction
1 And there, my faithful huntsman, you will kill Order to kill her Order to kill her
her.

But your majesty, the little Princes... Objection Objection

1 Silence! No questioning Order to follow the

command
2 You know the penalty if you fail! Informing the threatening
consequence.
Yes, your majesty Showing obedience
But to make double sure you do not fail, bring Order to bring P’s -threatening, bring the
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 Example
Q  move 1: Take her far into the forest. Find some
secluded glade where she can pick wild flowers.
A  move 2.: Yes, your Majesty.
Q: And there, my faithful huntsman, you will kill her.
A : But your Majesty, the little Princess!
Q : Silence! You know the penalty if you fail!
A : Yes your Majesty
Q : But to make double sure you do not fail, bring back
her heart in this!
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M&A Locutionary Illocutionary Analysis
Category

1.1 Asking s_1 to take her to the Kidnap, by forcing, at night, through Directive
forest. disguise
1.2 Taking her to get wild flowers. Persuading her to follow one’s will Directive

2.1 Agreeing upon the order Obeying the instruction Commissive

3.1 Describing his instruction Directing 1 to kill ‘her’ Directive

4.1 Consider to not to do so refuse the instruction Expressive

5.1 Warning Instructing him to obey not to refuse Directive

the order
5.2 Carry out the order Reminding him not to refuse/threat comissive

6.1 Agreeing upon the order Obeying the instruction Comissive

7.1 Convincing him to do the order Demanding to proove that he commissive

by carrying her heart succeeds to carry out the order
11
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Speech act theory
 Developed by two philosophers: John Austin and John
Searle;
 Austin (“How to do things with words”): some sentences are
used not just to state something, which is true or false:
Example 1
I apologize.
I declare the meeting open.
 These sentences are used to do things. They are
performatives/ vs. all other utterances – constatives.

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Speech Acts
 Searle (1975)
 All speech acts classified as
 Assertives – suggesting, boasting, concluding, etc.
 Directives – asking, ordering, inviting, etc.
 Commissives – promising, planning, vowing, etc.
 Expressives – thanking, apologizing, deploring, etc.
 Declarations – performatives (state-changing)

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Speech act theory
 Differentiation between performatives and constatives:
adverb “hereby”
Example 2
I hereby apologize.
I hereby declare the meeting open.
 Examples
to say
of performative verbs in English:
to withdraw
to protest to declare
to object to plead
to apologize to vote
to deny to thank, etc.
to promise

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Speech act theory
 Constatives can be true or false; performatives can't be true or false. But
performatives can go wrong;
 Conditions for performative sentences, which make them successful
("felicitous“ conditions):
 Condition 1:
 There must be a conventional procedure following a conventional
effect;
 The circumstances and the persons must be appropriate.
 Condition 2:
 The procedure must be executed:
 Correctly;
 Completely.
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Speech act theory
 Condition 3:
 Often
 The person must have the requisite thoughts, feelings
and intentions, as specified in the procedure;
 If consequent conduct is specified, then the relevant
parties must do so.

Favorite examples: marriages

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Speech act theory
 Types of speech acts:
 Verdictives (e.g. estimating, assessing, describing);
 Exercitives (ordering, appointing, advising);
 Commissives (promising, betting);
 Behabitives (apologizing, congratulating, thanking);
 Expositives (arguing, insisting).

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Speech act theory
 Performatives: explicit and implicit;
 Performatives and constatives are just two
subclasses of illocutionary acts;
 Illocutionary acts consist of other classes of
speech acts.

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Speech act theory
Each speech act consists of 3 components:
 Locutionary act (the actual words which the speaker is
saying);
 Illocutionary act (the intention of the speaker);
 Perlocutionary act (the effect of the utterance on the
hearer).

Example 3
(From "Sense and Sensibility")

Wait, he is kneeling down.

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Speech act theory
 Compare Austin’s classification with other classification of speech acts
Conclusions for DA:
 speech act theory is concerned with what people do with language or it is
concerned with the function of language.;
 a piece of discourse (what is said) is chunked/segmented into units that
have communicative functions,;
 these function are identified and labelled;
 different speech acts initiate and respond to other acts. Acts to a certain
degree specify what kind of response is expected;
 they create options for a next utterance each time they are performed;
 An utterance can perform more than one speech act at a time ;
 there is more than one option of responses for a next utterance;
 Deborah Schiffrin: ‘this flexibility has an important analytical consequence: it
means that a single sequence of utterances may actually be the outcome of
a fairly wide range of different underlying functional relations.’
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Pragmatics
 Based primarily on the ideas of Paul Grice:
 People interact having minimal assumptions (implicatures)
about one another;
 Two types of implicatures: conventional and
conversational;
 Conventional implicatures do not require any particular
context in order to be understood (or inferred);
 Conversational implicatures are context – dependant. What
is implied varies according to the context of an utterance.

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Pragmatics
 To explain HOW we interpret implicatures
Grice introduced the Cooperative Principal:
 Make your contribution such as required,
at the stage at which it occurs, by the
accepted purpose or direction of the talk
exchange in which you are engaged.

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Pragmatics
 There are four conversational maxims which help us to
realize the implicit meaning if an utterance:
 Maxim of Quantity:
Make your contributions as informative as required (for the
current purposes of the exchange). Do not make your
contribution more informative than required.

 Maxim of Quality:
Do not say what you believe to be false. Do not say
something if you lack adequate evidence.
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Pragmatics
 Maxim of Relation:
Be relative.

 Maxim of Manner:
Be perspicuous (or express your ideas clearly)
Avoid obscurity of expressions (= do not use expressions which are not
clear or easy to understand);
Avoid ambiguity (= presence of more than one meaning);
Be brief (avoid unnecessary usage of too many words);
Be orderly.

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Pragmatics
 The contribution of Gricean pragmatics to DA
is a set of principles that constrains speakers’
sequential choices in a text and allows hearers
to recognize speaker’s intentions.

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