Preliminaries

Just Words ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 8-26
Author(s):  
Mary Kate McGowan
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
General Information ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Important Distinction ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Key Concepts

This chapter presents the material in the philosophy of language that is required to follow the arguments in the book. A general introduction to an intentionalist neo-Gricean framework for understanding language use is presented. General information about speech act theory and the felicity conditions for successful speech acts is covered. Since the book focuses on exercitive speech, that is, speech that enacts permissibility facts, additional information is given about exercitives and their felicity conditions. This chapter also clarifies some of the key concepts used throughout the book. The nature of enactment, different kinds of enactment, the important distinction between constituting and merely causing harm, and the nature of social norms are all presented.

scholarly journals Politeness and Speech Acts of Malay Kupang

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Riyanti Menno
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Linguistic Politeness

The study was aimed at examining the use of polite language (language use) in Kupang Malay speech community. There are two basic theories of this research; speech act and linguistic politeness theory. The politeness theory was combined with speech act theory, because the speech act theory investigates what to choose, while the theory of politeness investigate whether the utterances are polite or not. In speech, the BMK speaker also uses the six the principles of politeness toward the listeners. These principles are tact maxim, generosity maxim, approbation maxim, modesty maxim, agreement maxim, and sympathy maxim

Searle, John (1932–)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernie Lepore
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Action Theory ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
University Of California ◽  
John Searle ◽  
Intentional States ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
The University

John Searle was a pupil of J.L. Austin at Oxford in the 1950s. He is the Mills Professor of Mind and Language at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught philosophy since 1959. According to Searle, the primary objects of analysis in the philosophy of language are not expressions but the production of expressions, speech acts, in accordance with rules. Learning a language involves (often unconsciously) internalizing rules that govern the performance of speech acts in that language. Speech-act theory aims to discover these rules and is itself a part of action theory, which concerns intentional states directed at or about something. It follows that speech-act theory is part of a more comprehensive theory of intentionality.

scholarly journals Politeness Strategies vis-à-vis Genders and Exposures to Western Culture: The Case of ‘The Voice of the Philippines’ Coaches

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 100-117
Author(s):  
Joel Torres
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Western Culture ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Indirect Speech Act ◽  
The Voice

Politeness is one of the key concepts in Speech Act Theory, a major field in pragmatics. In a television platform, a number of studies were done to determine the politeness strategies performed by hosts and judges; however, none so far has focused on comparing them based on gender and cultural background. Using a corpus composed of 30 Blind Auditions video-clips randomly selected from YouTube, the present study aimed at describing the politeness strategies employed by The Voice of the Philippines’ coaches with emphasis on their genders and exposures to Western culture. Coaches’ utterances were classified following Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness strategies which include (a) bald on record, (b) perform speech acts using positive politeness, (c) perform speech acts using negative politeness, (d) indirect speech act or off the record.  

The things we do with words: Ilongot speech acts and speech act theory in philosophy

1982 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Z. Rosaldo
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Partial Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Constraints ◽  
Subjective Meanings

ABSTRACTI begin by introducing the Ilongots and some of their attitudes toward speech. Whereas most modem theorists think of language as a tool designed primarily to “express” or to “refer,” Ilongots think of language first in terms of action. They see commands as the exemplary act of speech, displaying less concern for the subjective meanings that an utterance conveys than for the social contexts in which utterances are heard. An ethnographic sketch thus outlines how Ilongots think of words and how their thought relates to aspects of their practice – providing an external foil for theorists found closer to home. Speech Act Theory is discussed and questioned first on internal grounds, as an approach that recognizes but slights important situational and cultural constraints on forms of language use. A consideration of the application of Searle's taxonomy of acts of speech to Ilongot categories of language use then leads to a clarification of the individualistic and relatively asocial biases of his essentially intra-cultural account. Last, I return to Ilongot directives. A partial analysis of Ilongot acts of speech provides the basis for a statement of the ways in which indigenous categodes are related to the forms that actions take, as both of these, in turn, reflect the sociocultural ordering of local worlds. (Speech acts, philosophy and ethnography, ethnography of speaking, Ilongot [Philippines].)

New Work on Speech Acts

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
New Work ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Relationship

The essays collected in this book represent recent advances in our understanding of speech acts-actions like asserting, asking, and commanding that speakers perform when producing an utterance. The study of speech acts spans disciplines, and embraces both the theoretical and scientific concerns proper to linguistics and philosophy as well as the normative questions that speech acts raise for our politics, our societies, and our ethical lives generally. It is the goal of this book to reflect the diversity of current thinking on speech acts as well as to bring these conversations together, so that they may better inform one another. Topics explored in this book include the relationship between sentence grammar and speech act potential; the fate of traditional frameworks in speech act theory, such as the content-force distinction and the taxonomy of speech acts; and the ways in which speech act theory can illuminate the dynamics of hostile and harmful speech. The book takes stock of well over a half century of thinking about speech acts, bringing this classicwork in linewith recent developments in semantics and pragmatics, and pointing the way forward to further debate and research.

Sexual Harassment, Speech Acts, and Public Secrets in U.S. Higher Education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Debenport
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Online Conversations ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Discursive Representations

This chapter draws on data from U.S. higher education to analyze the ways that the language used to describe sexual harassment secures its continued power. Focusing on two features viewed as definitional to sexual harassment, frequency and severity, the discussion analyzes three sets of online conversations about the disclosure of abuse in academia (a series of tweets, survey responses, and posts on a philosophy blog) from grammatical, pragmatic, and semiotic perspectives. Unlike most prior research, this chapter focuses on the language of victims rather than the intentions of harassers. The results suggest that speech act theory is unable to account fully for sexual harassment without accepting the relevance of perlocutionary effects. Using Gal and Irvine’s (2019) model of axes of differentiation, the chapter demonstrates how opposing discursive representations (of professors, sexual harassers, victims, and accusers) create a discursive space in which it becomes difficult for victims to report their harassers.

scholarly journals Uttering geographies: Speech acts, felicity conditions and modes of existence

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1124-1140
Author(s):  
Miles Ogborn
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Human Speech ◽  
Everyday Talk ◽  
Modes Of Existence

The geographies of speech has become stuck in a form of interpretation which considers the potentially infinite detail of spoken performances understood within their equally infinitely complex contexts. This paper offers a way forward by considering the uses, critiques and reworkings of J.L. Austin’s speech act theory by those who study everyday talk, by deconstructionists and critical theorists, and by Bruno Latour in his AIME (‘An Inquiry into Modes of Existence’) project. This offers a rethinking of speech acts in terms of power and space, and a series of ontological differentiations between forms of utterances and enunciations beyond human speech.

scholarly journals Contrastive Pragmatics: Apologies & Thanks in English and Italian

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Cuneyt Demir ◽  
Mehmet Takkac
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
American English ◽  
The Status ◽  
Language Competency ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Remedial Strategies

<p>Awareness of language or language competency has greatly changed from the focus of language itself as form and structure to language use as pragmatics. Accordingly, it is widely accepted that different cultures structure discourse in different ways. Moreover, studies have shown that this holds for discourse genres traditionally considered as highly standardized in their rituals and formulas. Taking inspiration from such studies, this paper employs a corpus-based approach to examine variations of the apology and thanking strategies used in English and Italian. First the apology itself as a form of social action is closely analyzed and then thanking. This study also pays special attention on analyzing and contrasting apology and thanking strategies in American English and in Italian in terms of Marion Owen’s remedial strategies (Owen, 1983), and Olshtain &amp; Cohen’s semantic formulas in the apology speech act set (Olshtain &amp; Cohen, 1983). The purpose of the study is not only to compare apology and thanking speech acts but to also learn their contextual use. The findings suggest that the status and role of the situation affect the speakers’ choice of apology and thanking strategies, and semantic formulas are of great importance.</p>

scholarly journals An Analysis of Speech Acts in the Inaugural Address of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the President of the Republic of Ghana on January 7, 2021

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
John Demuyakor
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Inaugural Address ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
The Republic

Speech acts as an important element during communication, because it explains the thoughts of the speaker(s). A speech act is more about what is performed when uttering words and not about individual words or sentences that are known to form the basic elements of human communication. An attempt to do something through speaking is what is known as a speech act and a lot of things can be done through speaking. A speech act is studied under speech act theory and is found in the domain of pragmatics. Using a qualitative research design, the key objective of this study is to analyze the types of speech acts adopted in the inaugural address of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo as the President of the Republic of Ghana for his second term on the 7th January 2021. This study analyzed the Inaugural Address using Searle’s theory of speech act as a theoretical framework with emphasis on Searle’s five categories of speech act. The study showed that out of a total of 74 locutionary / Statements in the inaugural address,assertive acts are 40.5% of the utterances, commissive acts are 25.6%, while directive, expressive and declarative have small portions, of 13.5%, 12.2%, and 8.2% respectively.

scholarly journals An Investigation on How University Students’ View Lecturers’ Usage of Speech Acts in ELT context

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-43
Author(s):  
Mutiara Shasqia ◽  
Aulia Anggraini
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Classroom Interaction ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Specific Time ◽  
Illocutionary Acts ◽  
Communication Context ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Perlocutionary Effect

Teachers and lecturers alike understand that they must consciously use a variety of speech acts to force students to follow their instructions and be motivated to learn on their own. This paper reports the findings of a study designed to investigate the notion of the perlocutionary effect of university students in the classroom resulted from lecturers’ illocutionary acts. The acts were then analyzed the illocutionary act of the lecturers’ talk or speech during specific time using Austin’s speech act theory. This present study built its investigation from data collection on both lecturers and university students through interview and field notes. This study manage to reveals that lecturers freely use speech acts of persuading, angering, and commanding. This study believes that illocutionary acts will still have happened in our interaction's life or communication in many-many context including classroom interaction between lecturer-students communication context.

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