From Speech Acts to Speech Activity

John Searle ◽  
2003 ◽  
pp. 34-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Fotion
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Activity

The language ability, speech competence, speech activity of Generation Z

2021 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 61-74
Author(s):  
L. O. Butakova
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Elderly Person ◽  
Language Ability ◽  
School Students ◽  
Conceptual Information ◽  
Association Tests ◽  
Speech Activity ◽  
Generation Z ◽  
Written Speech

The paper aims to demonstrate possible approaches to solving problems arising during comprehensive linguistic description of the language ability, speech competence, speech activity of Generation Z. This purpose was achieved with the help of evaluation of speech acts performed in the process of associating and in the course of spontaneous connected written speech activity. Material: the results of free and directed pair by association tests conducted by the author in 2010–2012, 2015–2016, 2019–2021. Additionally, essay texts about the topics «I and the world around me», «If it were not for computers and tablet computers», «My city» («What places in Omsk do I like to visit? Why? «), «Who do I want to resemble?», «An elderly person. What is he / she like?», «Old age. What is it like? «, «In my old age I will…», «Happiness… as I understand it» were used. The essays were written by school students of the 7th, 8th and 9th forms in 2005, 2010, 2015–2016, 2020. Methods: free and directed pair by association experiments, comprehensive text analysis. The latter enabled the author to define the following parameters: communicative (speech strategies and tactics, communication types), cognitive (actualisation of meanings and cognitive structures), semantic (word selection, distribution of object features, identification of predicates and so on), statistical (the number of words per sentence and sentences per text). The results of the study: specific features of speech actions during free and directed pair by association tests were determined. Additionally, the research revealed that Generation Z members use slang verbal and graphic signs; typical scenarios caused by certain cognitive fragments which are present in their linguistic consciousness prevail. Conclusions: I-to-subject communication is the key means for organising narration, and it dominates the communicative organisation of connected texts independent of the topic. Semantic text development is based on the form and contents of the title and virtually follows it in the reactive dialogical mode. Introductions and conclusions in the essays are reduced. At the informational level, conceptual information outweighs factual and directly develops the thesis implied in the title. The variety of semantic, conceptual, cognitive features of the texts is limited; the essays are devoid of conceptual multiple layers. The development level of teenagers’ discursive thinking, in particular, inadequate development of speech activity determines their mastering of the format of a cohesive speech piece. This is shown in organisational simplicity and insufficient text volume; cohesion is achieved with the help of lexical and syntactic repetition. In the process of written speech, the types of performed speech actions aimed to verbalise meanings are connected with the reproduction of cognitive scenarios (temporal, identification, existential) already formed in the mind. The mentioned scenarios are also manifested during free and directed by pair association in the experimental setting.

Occasional Speech Acts

2021 ◽  
pp. 16-21
Author(s):  
N. Korobkina
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Component Structure ◽  
Speech Activity ◽  
Speech Generation ◽  
Over Time

Speech acts are considered as minimal units of speech activity and as a three-component structure consisting of ilocution, locution and perlocution. Varieties of speech acts are distinguished depending on a statement illocutionary purpose: assertives, commissives, directives, expressives, declarations (according to J. Searle). The possibility of these speech acts occasional nature is emphasized. A speech act occasionality is achieved by using a nomination in a corresponding communicative situation. This nomination has novelty over time and outside the conditions of its speech generation, the absence of a wide (frequency) situational functioning, created on occasion, often with an author’s intention. Specific examples of communicative situations containing a kind of an occasional speech act are given. It is noted that occasional speech acts are a key point in the study of a pragmatic approach to language phenomena, when a producer intensity – to produce a certain speech action – comes to the fore.

scholarly journals Pragmalinguistic Aspect of Interrogative Speech Acts in Discourse of “Rig Veda”

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-61
Author(s):  
M. A. Voronkina
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Vedic Ritual ◽  
Continuous Sampling ◽  
Speech Activity ◽  
Rig Veda ◽  
First Time ◽  
Linguistic Material

The interrogative speech acts presented in the linguistic material of the “Rig Veda” — one of the most ancient and culturally significant works that were a manifestation of ritual and mythological discourse, are researched. The language of Vedic texts is considered from the standpoint of the functional approach as a pragmatic system for which such communicative characteristics as intentions and illocutionary power of utterances are relevant. The system of norms and ideas that govern speech activity in the Vedic ritual interaction is taken into account. It has been proven that interrogative speech acts are one of the most important pragmatic elements of this type of discourse. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that all the interrogative structures of the monument extracted as a result of a continuous sampling are studied for the first time from the point of view of pragmatics, taking into account communicative intentions. Various types of questions are described and analyzed, including interrogative constants, interrogative directives, including questions with secondary illocution, as well as proper interrogative sentences. The author comes to the conclusion that, in addition to non-specific pragmatics for a given linguistic material, interrogative sentences in the text of the Rig Veda contribute to the realization of the magic-incantatory function of speech. The results are valuable both for studying the named type of discourse and for clarifying the understanding of the text of the monument and Vedic culture as a whole.

Agreement and disagreement in the light of the theory of speech acts

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 300-315
Author(s):  
Boris Justinovich Norman
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Urgent Problem ◽  
Speech Activity ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Colloquial Speech

The article examines the place occupied by agreement and disagreement in speech activity. The background for solving this urgent problem is the theory of speech acts. Examples from Russian fiction and colloquial speech are used as factual material. It is shown that the categories of agreement and disagreement can act as: a) independent replicas that regulate the development of dialogue (such as Russian Da and Net); b) semantic presuppositions that are part of some speech acts (approval, surprise, permission, indignation, etc.); c) dominant linguistic and psychological attitudes in the production of the text; d) features that characterize the language personality. Combinations of agreement or disagreement with other meanings mask these intentions, and the recipient, in order to understand the text correctly, must restore the entire chain of propositions used by the speaker. It also describes the situation of neutralization of agreement and disagreement, due to either the complexity of the discursive conditions, or the personal qualities of the speaker. The connection of these situations with the phenomena of hedging and empathy, which are tuning of interpersonal relations in the group, is noted. It is concluded that agreement and disagreement are complex, multi-level communicative categories.

scholarly journals Commissive Pragmatics of Elucidative Speech Acts in Modern English

2018 ◽  
pp. 34-38
Author(s):  
M. Stasiv
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Mental Activity ◽  
Speech Activity ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Practical Analysis ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
National Corpus

Despite a number of studies that deal with the construction of the communicative-and-pragmatic system of the utterances-commissives of different types, today the English elucidative utterances of commissive type and their differentiation into the communicative-and-pragmatic subtypes remain poorly studies and require a thorough analysis at the communicative-and-pragmatic level of their actualization, which explains the relevance of this research. Moreover, the relevance of this issue has been caused by the necessity to clarify the specificity of formation of the commissive speech act in the structure of the analyzed utterance. The object of the study is the English elucidative utterances-commissives. The purpose of this article is to reveal the communicative-and-pragmatic organization of these commissive utterances-acts. The utterances with the key predicates of mental activity, selected from the British National Corpus texts, served as the material of the study. The intent-analysis has been applied for revealing the communicative-and-pragmatic peculiarities of the elucidative utterance of commissive type. The latter has been conducted at different levels – from the pragmemic structure of the key illocutionary predicate to the communicative-and-pragmatic organization of the entire utterance-commissive. This in turn has facilitated the revealing of the micropragmatic and pragmatic parameters of the object of the study. On the basis of the theoretical and practical analysis results the elucidative utterance-commissive is considered as a communicative-and-pragmatic unit of the speech activity aimed at the speaker’s obligative intention realization in the communicative situation of interaction. The results of the study also prove that the commissive pragmatics of the analyzed type of the utterance has been predetermined by the key commissiveness in its principal clause, and its subordinate clause only supplements, specifies it. The key commissiveness of the utterance has been expressed with the key illocutionary predicate in the affirmative form. The latter plays a crucial role in the revealing its commissive pragmatics and the developing an extended communicative-and-pragmatic typology of the elucidative utterances-commissives.

"Let's do lunch sometime": An analysis of ostensible speech acts

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen E. Link ◽  
Roger J. Kreuz ◽  
Jackie Soto
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts

Orientalist Speech-acts and Israeli Middle East Studies: Cautions and Criticisms of Edward Said Beyond the Battle of Ideas

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-237
Author(s):  
Eyal Clyne
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Edward Said ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Academic World ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Middle East Studies

Drawing on speech acts theory, this article discusses the illocutionary and perlocutionary forces of discursive practices with which certain academic circles seek to discredit the Saidian ‘Orientalism’ framework. Identifying the unusual value attached to Said as object of attachment or detachment, desirability and exceptionality, this analysis turns away from deliberations about ‘orientalism’ as a party in a battle of ideas, and studies common cautionary statements and other responses by peers as actions in the social (academic) world, that enculture and police expectations. Cautioning subjects about this framework, or conditioning its employment to preceding extensive pre-emptive complicating mitigations, in effect constructs this framework as undesirable and ‘risky’. While strong discursive reactions are not uncommon in academia, comparing them to treatments of less-controversial social theories reveals formulations, meanings and attentions which are arguably reserved for this ‘theory’. Conclusively, common dismissals, warnings and criticisms of Said and ‘Orientalism’ often exemplify Saidian claims, as they deploy the powerful advantage of enforcing hegemonic, and indeed Orientalist, views.

Pragmatic instruction in L2-Russian

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-95
Author(s):  
Daniele Artoni ◽  
Valentina Benigni ◽  
Elena Nuzzo
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Instructional Treatment ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
National Corpus ◽  
Pragmatic Instruction

Over the last three decades, a growing number of studies have investigated the effects of instruction on the acquisition of pragmatic features in L2. The bulk of this research has focused mainly on the teaching of English as a second/foreign language. However, instructional pragmatic studies in L2-Russian are lacking. The main purpose of our study is to contribute towards filling this gap by analysing the effects of pragmatic instruction on the acquisition of two speech acts by Italian learners of Russian. Furthermore, we aim to explore whether the Multimodal Russian Corpus (MURCO), a multimedia subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus, can be an effective tool for teaching speech acts in L2-Russian. Our research was composed of one experimental group (n = 18) and one control group (n = 11); each was composed of two intact classes of Italian university students at an intermediate level of L2-Russian, who were pre- and post-tested using a written discourse completion task. The experimental group was subjected to a programme of pragmatic instruction – eight thirty-minute MURCO-based lessons devoted to requests and advice, while the control group was taught according to the standard syllabus, that is, with no pragmatic instruction. The results revealed that the use of the target pragmatic features varied significantly in the experimental group, but not in the control group, thus showing a general positive effect of the instructional treatment based on the MURCO corpus. However, some limitations were identified with regard to the usability of this tool by teachers and learners.

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