Performative Force, Convention, and Discursive Injustice

Hypatia ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 440-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Kukla

AbstractI explore how gender can shape the pragmatics of speech. In some circumstances, when a woman deploys standard discursive conventions in order to produce a speech act with a specific performative force, her utterance can turn out, in virtue of its uptake, to have a quite different force—a less empowering force—than it would have if performed by a man. When members of a disadvantaged group face a systematic inability to produce a specific kind of speech act that they are entitled to perform—and in particular when their attempts result in their actually producing a different kind of speech act that further compromises their social position and agency—then they are victims of what I call discursive injustice. I examine three examples of discursive injustice. I contrast my account with Langton and Hornsby's account of illocutionary silencing. I argue that lack of complete control over the performative force of our speech acts is universal, and not a special marker of social disadvantage. However, women and other relatively disempowered speakers are sometimes subject to a distinctive distortion of the path from speaking to uptake, which undercuts their social agency in ways that track and enhance existing social disadvantages.

2019 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-418
Author(s):  
Claudia Bianchi

According to Mitchell Green, speech act theory traditionally idealizes away from crucial aspects of conversational contexts, including those in which the speaker’s social position affects the possibility of her performing certain speech acts. In recent times, asymmetries in communicative situations have become a lively object of study for linguists, philosophers of language and moral philosophers: several scholars view hate speech itself in terms of speech acts, namely acts of subordination (acts establishing or reinforcing unfair hierarchies). The aim of this paper is to address one of the main objections to accounts of hate speech in terms of illocutionary speech acts, that is the Authority Problem. While the social role of the speaker is the focus of several approaches (Langton 2018a, 2018b; Maitra 2012; Kukla 2014; Green 2014, 2017a, 2017b), the social role of the audience has too often been neglected. The author will show that not only must the speaker have a certain kind of standing or social position in order to perform speech acts of subordination, but also the audience must typically have a certain kind of standing or social position in order to either license or object to the speaker’s authority, and her acts of subordination.


2020 ◽  
pp. 104-113
Author(s):  
Joanna Kowalczyk

The article is devoted to the description of modifying reality through non-verbal speech acts. The subject of the study are non-verbal signs referring to the category of legal communication. This study included acts of legal communication that are expressed or can be expressed using various forms of silence. The first aim of the study was to determine whether silence can be classified as a speech act in the strict sense. The secondary aim was to determine the usefulness of silence in legal communication. The methodological basis of the analysis was the assumptions of pragmatism in the approach of W. James and the concept of performative acts of speech by J. L. Austin.


2021 ◽  
pp. 116-125
Author(s):  
Tom Dougherty

This chapter elaborates the Expression of Will View as a disjunctive view, in so far as it allows that there are two ways that someone can consent by expressing their will. First, they can deliberately perform a ‘directive’ speech act. Examples of these speech acts include requests, invitations, and orders. Second, someone can consent by expressing that they are giving another person permission. While it is possible to simultaneously give consent in both ways, there are some situations in which someone consents in only one of these two ways. Since the Expression of Will View allows that consent can be given in either of these two ways, it is a disjunctive view. Although a disjunctive view is less cohesive and simple, we need to endorse a disjunctive view to have an extensionally adequate account. But although the view is disjunctive, it has some unity in virtue of the fact that it has the Interpersonal Justification Argument as an underlying rationale.


Pragmatics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-132
Author(s):  
Ernesto Wong García

Abstract This paper presents an account of value ascription as an illocutionary force, based on four claims: (1) that value ascription is a kind of illocutionary force, defining a specific kind of speech act, i.e. valuative speech acts (VSAs); (2) that the point of VSAs is ascribing an axiological value to a referent; (3) that VSAs create a weak, inside-oriented truth commitment; and (4) that they are therefore more about the valuating subject than they are about the valuated object. This illocutionary force is described using criteria taken from contemporary speech act theory as well as others that have proven informative. This description results in a rich taxonomy of VSAs. This shows the viability and fruitfulness of a pragmatic account of value ascription, and it contributes to the development of speech act theory, specifically with regard to the distinction between primary and secondary illocutionary points, and the speech act taxonomy itself.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-81
Author(s):  
Sayyora Azimova ◽  

This article is devoted to the pragmatic interpretation of the illocutionary action of the speech act “expression of refusals”. The article discusses different ways of reflecting cases of denial. This article was written not only for English language professionals, but also for use in aggressive conflicts and their pragmatic resolution, which naturally occur in the process of communication in all other languages


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-231
Author(s):  
Sayyora Azimova ◽  

This article is devoted to the pragmatic interpretation of the illocutionary action of the speech act“expression of refusals”. The article discusses different ways of reflecting cases of denial. This article was written not only for English language professionals, but also for use in aggressive conflicts and their pragmatic resolution, which naturally occur in the process of communication in all other languages


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Evi Jovita Putri

<p>The research entitled Directive Speech Act Seen on Family 2.0 Drama Script Written by Walter Wykes purposes to describe and uncover the types of form and intended meaning of directive speech act on that drama script. This descriptive research uses pragmatic approach and theory. The collecting and analysing data are focused on the using of declarative, imperative, and interrogative sentences in the text of drama. The forms of those sentences will be analysed to find out the types of form of directive speech act, while the context of those sentences will be used to analyze the intended meaning of directive speech act uttered by speakers. The results of the research are found that, first, there are two types of the form of directive speech acts, direct directive speech acts and indirect directive speech acts. Direct directive speech acts are represented by imperative sentence without subject; imperative sentence with let; and negative imperative sentence. Meanwhile the indirect directive speech acts are represented by declarative sentence statement; declarative sentence if clause; negative declarative sentences; and interrogative sentences. Second, the intended meanings seen on drama script of Family 2.0 are command, prohibition, request, treat, and persuasion. It can be concluded that, the most frequent intended meaning appeared in directive speech acts on this script is command by the use of imperative forms. Then, the declarative and interrogative forms are used to request something by adults charaters; in contrast the kids characters use them to command and prohibit the hearer.<strong></strong></p><strong>Keywords: </strong> family 2.0, pragmatic, speech act, directive, form and intended meaning


SUHUF ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-342
Author(s):  
Fathur Rosyid

Abstrak Kata Kunci: Pragamtik, Tindak Tutur, Implikatur, Kisah Sayyidah Maryam   Kisah Sayyidah Maryam dalam al-Qur’a>n merupakan salah-satu kisah yang menarik dikaji dengan pendekatan pragmatik. Hal ini disebabkan, secara tekstual, beliau adalah publik figur yang fenomenal, bahkan mengalahkan status sosial perempuan lainnya, sehingga namanya terdokumentasikan dalam satu surat khusus yang populer dengan sebutan ”Surat Maryam”. Kecuali itu, kisah tersebut juga termasuk kisah yang kaya dengan nuansa konteks. Sementara posisi ilmu prgamatik sendiri  merupakan disiplin keilmuan yang mengkaji satuan bahasa dari sudut pandang relasi antara konteks linguistik yang bersifat diadik dan konteks non-linguistik yang bersifat triadik. Penelitian ini hendak mengungkap dua hal; Pertama, apa yang dimaksud pragmatika al-Qur’a>n?. Kedua, bagaimana bentuk aplikasi pragmatik tindak tutur dan implikatur terhadap fragmentasi kisah kelahiran Sayyidah Maryam dalam al-Qur’an?. Tujuan kedua pertanyaan tersebut untuk memahami konsep prgamtika al-Qur’an, juga untuk mengungkap bentuk tindak tutur dan implikatur fragmentasi kisah kelahiran Sayyidah Maryam. Penelitian ini menghasilkan kesimpulan; Pertama, pragmatika al-Qur’an adalah suatu disiplin ilmu yang mengkaji al-Qur’a>n dari sudut pandang relasi antara konteks kebahasaan dengan konteks non-kebahasaan. Kedua, tindak tutur fragmentasi kisah kelahiran Sayyidah Maryam yang terdapat dalam Qs. A<li ‘Imra>n (03): 36, lokusinya berupa kalimat informatif, sementara illokusinya merupakan bentuk kalimat asertif yang bermakna mengeluh. Adapun implikaturnya sebagai pelajaran, bahwa jika segala sesuatu telah dipasrahkan sama Allah swt. maka tidak pantas mencari kesalahan atas peraturan yang telah ditetapkan-Nya.               Abstract Keywords: Pragamtik, Speech Acts, implicatures, Story of Sayyidah Maryam   The story of Sayyidah Maryam in the al-Qur'a>n is one-on-one interesting stories studied with a pragmatic approach. This is due, textually, he is a public figure who is phenomenal, even beating out other women's social status, so the name is documented in a special letter that is popularly known as "Surah Maryam". Except that, the story also included a story rich with nuances of context. While the position pragamatic science itself is a scientific discipline that examines unit of language from the perspective of the relationship between linguistic context that is both dyadic and non-linguistic context that is triadic. This research seeks to reveal two things; First, what is meant pragmatic al-Qur'a>n?. Second, how the application form pragmatics of speech acts and implicatures to fragmentation birth story of Sayyidah Maryam in the al-Qur'a>n?. The second purpose of these questions to understand the concept pragamtic al-Qur'a>n, as well as to reveal the shape of speech acts and implicatures fragmentation of the birth story of Sayyidah Maryam. This research resulted in the conclusion; First, the pragmatics of the al-Qur’a>n is a discipline that examines al-Qur'a>n from the viewpoint of the relationship between linguistic context with non-linguistic context. Second, the speech act fragmentation birth story of Sayyidah Maryam contained in Qs. A<li 'Imra>n (03): 36, locutionary acts be informative sentence, while illocutionary acts an assertive form meaningful sentences complaining. The implicature as a lesson, that if everything was handled the same God, it is inappropriate to find fault with the regulations set his.


Author(s):  
Craige Roberts

This essay sketches an approach to speech acts in which mood does not semantically determine illocutionary force. The conventional content of mood determines the semantic type of the clause in which it occurs, and, given the nature of discourse, that type most naturally lends itself to a particular type of speech act, i.e. one of the three basic types of language game moves—making an assertion (declarative), posing a question (interrogative), or proposing to one’s addressee(s) the adoption of a goal (imperative). There is relative consensus about the semantics of two of these, the declarative and interrogative; and this consensus view is entirely compatible with the present proposal about the relationship between the semantics and pragmatics of grammatical mood. Hence, the proposal is illustrated with the more controversial imperative.


Author(s):  
Sarah E. Murray ◽  
William B. Starr

This essay sketches an approach to speech acts in which mood does not semantically determine illocutionary force. The conventional content of mood determines the semantic type of the clause in which it occurs, and, given the nature of discourse, that type most naturally lends itself to serving as a particular type of speech act, that is, to serving as one of the three basic types of language game moves-making an assertion (declarative); posing a question (interrogative); or proposing to one’s addressee(s) the adoption of a goal (imperative). This type of semantics for grammatical mood is illustrated with the imperative.


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