Journal

SPEECH ACTS

Chapter 18

Must express propositions with a particular illocutionary force

Speech Acts: particular kinds of action (stating, promising, warning, and so on) we perform when communicating

There are three sorts of things that one is doing in the course of producing an utterance:

locutionary acts

perlocutionary acts

illocutionary acts.

COMMUNICATION

The utterance of certain noises

Certain words in a certain construction

Utterance of them with a certain sense and a certain reference

Conflates a number of distinguishable:

produce an utterance inscription

compose a sentence

Contextualize

LOCUTIONARY ACTS

Acts performed by means of language

Use language as a tool

Defining element- external to the locutionary

Act does not consist in saying certain things in a certain way, but in having a certain effect, which in principle could have been produced in some other way

PERLOCUTIONARY ACTS

Acts internal to the locutionary act

Once the locutionary act has been performed, if the contextual conditions are appropriate, so has the illocutionary act.

Same illocutionary act can be performed via different locutionary acts

ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS

Illocutionary force: the illocutionary act aimed at by producing an utterance

there is no communication without illocutionary force

How does a speaker convey, or a hearer understand, the illocutionary force of an utterance?

distinguish between explicit and implicit illocutionary force

There is a specific linguistic signal whose function is to encode illocutionary force

two types: lexical and grammatical

IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT ILLOCUTIONARY FOCE

Function is to signal specific speech acts

Have certain peculiar properties which set them apart from non-performative performative verbs.

Can generally be recognized by the fact that they can occur normally with “hereby”

Can be used either performatively or descriptively

PERFORMATIVE VERBS

Most languages have grammatical ways of indicating the illocutionary force of an utterance

Four sentential forms:

Declarative

Interrogative

Imperative

Exclamative

GRAMMATICAL PERFORMATIVITY

Can exhibit a wide range of illocutionary force

Doubts have been expressed as to whether declarative form encodes any sort of speech act at all

Austin: drew a distinction between performative sentences and constatives

declaratives fell into the latter category.

DECLARATIVES

Used to ask questions

Express ignorance on some point

Aim at eliciting a response from a hearer which will remove the ignorance

INTERROGATIVE

YES/NO: effectively specify a proposition and express ignorance as to its truth

Wh-questions

present an incomplete proposition

aim at eliciting a response which completes the skeleton proposition that results in a true proposition

TWO SORTS OF QUESTION

Cannot be performed by any performative verbs

expresses a psychological attitude to a fact.

One exclaims by calling something out in a loud voice

The word exclaim does not encode an illocutionary act because is too loaded with manner meaning

EXCLAMATIONS

Certain types of utterance whose properties seem to suggest that even implicit performatives have a `hidden' or underlying explicit performative verb.

Every implicit performative has a `deep' structure

If there is an underlying performative verb with a first person subject and second person indirect object, then the mystery is explained.

PERFORMATIVE HYPOTHESIS

No antecedent for the reflexive pronoun

If there is an underlying performative verb with a first person subject and second person indirect object, the mystery is explained.

REFLEXIVES

Problems occur with adverbs and performative hypothesis

Interpretation of many adverbs requires the presence of verbs not proposed in the Performative Hypothesis

INTERPRETATION OF ADVERBS

Assertives: commit the speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition

Directives: have the intention of eliciting some sort of action on the part of the hearer

Commissives: commit the speaker to some future action

Expressives: make known the speaker's psychological attitude to a presupposed state of affairs

Declaratives: bring about a change in reality

CLASSIFYING SPEECH ACTS

Are usually called happiness conditions or felicity conditions

Some are conditions on any sort of linguistic communication

speaker and hearer understand one another (usually speak the same language)

can hear one another

CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL PERFORMANCE SPEECH ACTS

Do not define the speech act

Necessary if they do not hold- the act has not been carried out

Declarative speech acts:

the person performing the act must have authority to do it, and must do it in appropriate circumstances and with appropriate

Command- the speaker must:

be in authority over the hearer

must believe that the desired action has not already been carried out

Must believe that it is possible for the hearer to carry it out.

PREPARATORY CONDITIONS

Sincerity conditions: the person performing the act must have appropriate beliefs or feelings in performing the act of asserting

Essential conditions: define the act being carried out

SINCERITY AND ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS