The struggle between the power of language and the language of power

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mette Marie Roslyng ◽  
Gorm Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
Social Imaginary ◽  
Scientific Language ◽  
Analytical Strategy ◽  
Speech Genres ◽  
Power Of Language

Abstract In this study we look at how pro- and anti-vaccination groups construct alternative knowledge and facts discursively and linguistically in order to challenge or support the established scientific knowledge on vaccines. Through this case study we wish to examine how the power of language interacts with a language of power when memes in creative ways mimic, produce and reproduce scientific language and practices. Drawing on a dialogical-semiotic and a discourse theoretical analytical strategy, we, first, adopt Austin’s speech act theory and Bakhtin’s concept of speech genres to argue that memes are performative with an especially illocutionary force and are made up of alien language from scientific discourses. Second, we argue that Laclau’s discursive approach to how political positions are articulated in an antagonistic terrain allows us to see vaccination memes as either subversive or supportive of a scientific social imaginary.

scholarly journals Metaphorical Language in Best-Selling Books: Byrne's The Secret, the Power book as a Case Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanan Ali Amaireh
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Writing Style ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
Metaphorical Language

In this paper, an attempt is made to study the metaphorical language used in one of the best-selling books, The Secret, the Power by Rhonda Byrne (2010). A lot of literature has been made on analyzing metaphors in different genres, yet how metaphorical language is employed in best-selling books gained little attention from discourse analysts, so this study comes to fill this gap in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to focus on this crucial field of written discourse and best-selling books in particular. It will investigate the linguistic techniques which are employed in a way to persuade the audience to change their behavior or ideas and adopt new ones, especially the use of metaphorical expressions and storytelling. Metaphors will be analyzed according to Lakoff & Johnson’s (1980) perspective of metaphorical expressions and the "Speech Act Theory" proposed by Austin (1962) and Searle (1969). The paper concludes that metaphorical language is an integral part and pervasive in Byrne's writing style. She uses metaphorical expressions to deliver her message indirectly to convince the audience to adopt her ideas to call them for action. The analysis shows that storytelling is also employed by the author as a rhetorical device to persuade the audience of her thoughts.

What is an indirect speech act?

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-84
Author(s):  
Jörg Meibauer
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Indirect Speech Acts ◽  
Getting Lost ◽  
Indirect Speech Act

Abstract The notion of an indirect speech act is at the very heart of cognitive pragmatics, yet, after nearly 50 years of orthodox (Searlean) speech act theory, it remains largely unclear how this notion can be explicated in a proper way. In recent years, two debates about indirect speech acts have stood out. First, a debate about the Searlean idea that indirect speech acts constitute a simultaneous realization of a secondary and a primary act. Second, a debate about the reasons for the use of indirect speech acts, in particular about whether this reason is to be seen in strategic advantages and/or observation of politeness demands. In these debates, the original pragmatic conception of sentence types as indicators of illocutionary force seems to have been getting lost. Here, I go back to the seemingly outdated “literal force hypothesis” (see Levinson 1983: 263–264) and point out how it is still relevant for cognitive pragmatics.

scholarly journals Discourse Analysis from the Perspective of Austin’s Speech Act Theory and Searle’s Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts: A Case Study of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 198-203
Author(s):  
Andreea-Veridiana Farcasel-Jensen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Power Relationship ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
Illocutionary Acts ◽  
The Yellow Wallpaper ◽  
Short Narrative

A focus on discourse analysis, this study presents a particular interest in the power relationship artfully constructed by Charlotte P. Gilman in three dialogue instances in her most memorable short narrative, The Yellow Wallpaper. With the awareness of gender differences in mind in terms of how men and women use language, Gilman evinces the ways in which language could be a medium of silencing the other. Consequently, this paper carefully examines the protagonists’ discourses through J. L. Austin’s speech act theory and John Searle’s taxonomy of illocutionary acts. The corpus of the study consists of the utterances of the husband/doctor and of the wife/patient, and both the quantitative and qualitative research methods have been employed for the data analysis. The results have shown that the patriarchal discourse, originally dominated by representatives (opinions, facts) and directives (commands, orders, advices, and refusals), produces utterances meant to fabricate reality (erroneous diagnosis) and generate refusals, whereas the discourse of the other consists mainly of representatives- true statements and opinions -which contradict men’s reality in the journey to achieving self-assertion and selfexpression.

Sprechakttheoretische Überlegungen zur Typographie – am Beispiel von Presseüberschriften

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-291
Author(s):  
Rita Finkbeiner
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
General Question ◽  
Theoretic Approach ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Using the example of newspaper headlines, this paper develops a speech-act theoretic approach to aspects of meaning that can be communicated through the use of typographic means. After considering, more generally, the relationship between speech act theory and writing, analogies between prosody and typography are discussed and the claim is developed that typographic means, just as prosodic means, may function as illocutionary force indicating devices. Using Gallmann’s (1985) system of graphic means, newspaper headlines are defined, more specifically, as typographic objects indicating the (meta-textual) illocution type of an announcement of the text topic. Finally, the relationship between the grammatically determined illocution of a (sentential) headline and its typographically determined meta-textual illocution is modeled, on the basis of Searle’s (1982b) account of fictional speech acts, as an interplay of „vertical“ and „horizontal“ rules. The paper closes with a discussion of the more general question whether typographic acts are speech acts.

Actes De Langage, Semi-Actes Et Typologie Des Connecteurs Pragmatiques

1987 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Rubattel
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
Complementary Distribution ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Discourse Units ◽  
The Relationship

This article deals with the syntactic properties of pragmatic connectives and with the relationship between their distributional and argumentative properties. Recent discourse models based on speech act theory assume that pragmatic connectives link sentences (or larger units). However, certain phrasal categories too can function as discourse units, and the set of pragmatic connectives therefore includes not only markers linking sentences provided with an illocutionary force (speech acts), but also phrases lacking an asserted illocutionary force (semi-speech acts). Moreover, many connectives either belong to the two subsets or are in complementary distribution, depending on the syntactic environment. Except for coordination, all these connectives are members of only two grammatical categories: Universal subordinators (including complementizers, subordinating conjunctions and prepositions), and modifying adverbs. Coordinate conjunctions are briefly reconsidered, and some arguments are given for restricting this class to et, ou and ni, both on pragmatic and on syntactic grounds.

scholarly journals A Case Study on Characters in Pride and Prejudice: From Perspectives of Speech Act Theory and Conversational Implicature

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Xiaoyu Ma
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Pride And Prejudice ◽  
Conversational Implicature ◽  
The Enlightenment

<p>Speech act theory and conversational implicature, as research approaches in discourse analysis (DA), have been applied successfully to investigations in such fields as philosophy, linguistics, psychology and literature criticism. This paper aims to employ a synthesized model of these two theories to make a tentative study of the “literature language” and the characters in the literary work—<em>Pride and Prejudice</em>—to testify whether these research methods contribute to the readers’ understanding and appreciation of this masterpiece. The results of the study show that, to a certain extent, the image of the characters in a particular context in this literary work has been successfully demonstrated in terms of these two approaches in DA and it has been proved that “literature language” can be analyzed by means of DA theories. In addition, the study may contribute to the enlightenment of effective and creative approaches in literature as well as college movie English audio-visual-oral course teaching.</p>

scholarly journals POWER OF LANGUAGE IN EDUCATION

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-83
Author(s):  
Meisa Fitri Nasution
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Symbol Systems ◽  
Rhetorical Devices ◽  
Linguistic Cues ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Power Of Language

When we speak or write, we “tailor” what we say to fit the particular situation in which we are communicating and, at the same time, how we speak or write creates that very situation. We fit our language to a situation or context that ourlanguage, in turn, helped to create in the first place’ (Gee, 1999: 11). Furthermore, it seems that we always build and rebuild reality not just by dint of the language we employ but through language as discourse, i.e., language used in tandem with non-linguistic cues and symbol systems, tools, actions, interactions, technologies, and particular ways of thinking, feeling, or believing (ibid.). In looking at how power is exercised through language, the capability to refer to real examples that is found, and explained texts. But have a theoretical approach that will enable to interpret language data is presented with in an exam. Among other things, one should look at pragmatics and speech act theory, lexis and semantics (forms and meanings), forms that include or exclude (insiders or outsiders), structures (at phrase, clause and discourse level), forms of address, phatic tokens, as well as structural features of speech, which may be used to exercise or establish power. And in some contexts, one will need to be able to show how rhetorical devices are used to influence an audience

Muḥammad’s Conversations with the Bedouin: a Speech-Act Analysis of Prophetic Discourse in Hadith

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Mohd Faizal Kasmani ◽  
Sofia Hayati Yusoff ◽  
Osama Kanaker
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
Communication Style ◽  
John Searle ◽  
Perlocutionary Effect ◽  
Speech Act Analysis

Abstract Speech-act theory allows us to study how words have an impact in real life and the performative nature of words. At the same time, it can also contribute to an understanding of communication style and communication strategy. In this article, speech-act theory is applied to the conversations of Prophet Muḥammad with the Bedouin in two ways. First, the speech acts of the Prophet are analyzed using the categories put forward by John Searle to see how they function within the conversation. Second, the illocutionary force of an utterance and its perlocutionary effect – based on words and expressions that the Prophet used in his utterances – are examined to discover patterns in his communication strategy towards the Bedouin.

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