speech act.pptVIP

6.3 Macropragmatics Speech act theory The cooperative principle The politeness principle 6.3.1 Speech act theory Speech act theory was proposed by J. L. Austin and has been developed by J. R. Searle. They believe that language is not only used to inform or to describe things, it is often used to “do things”, to perform acts. Ex. (1) You’re fired. Actions performed via utterances are generally called speech acts, the uttering of the relevant words is the action itself; without the utterance the action is not done. These are called performative sentences and the verbs used are called performative verbs (Vp): I (Vp) you that… Sufficient conditions for “performative verbs” A. the singular form of the first person B. present tense C. declarative sentences D. the active voice 6.3.1.1 Illocutionary acts a. locutionary act Austin suggests three kinds of acts b. illocutionary act c. perlocutinary act The speech act theory a. Locutionary act: the act of saying, the literal meaning f the utterance b. illocutionary act: the extra meaning of the utterance produced on the basis of its literal meaning c. perlocutionary act: the effect of the utterance on the hearer, depending on specific circumstances. (1) It’s stuffy in here. The locutionary act is the saying of it with its literal meaning “There isn’t enough fresh air in here”. The illocutionary act can be a request of the hearer to open the window. The perlocutinary act can be the hearer’s opening the window or his refusal to do so. In fact, we might utter (1) to make a statement, a request, an explanation, or for some other communicative purposes. This is also generally known as the illocutionary force （言外之力） of the utterance. Felicity conditions （适切条件）:Circumstances under which it would be appropriate to interpret something as a particular type of speech act. 1. General conditions 2. Con