SPEECH ACTS
...speaking a language is performing speech acts, acts such as
making statements, giving commands, asking questions, making promises, and so
on. - John Searle
Suppose that during dinner one evening you get up, walk across the room,
turn
on the spigot, and pour yourself a glass of water - clearly, you
performed an
action. Now, suppose that you are having dinner and you ask a dinner
partner
to get you a glass of water. This also is an action ... the act of
asking. Speech, then, is not something that just happens by coincidence.
Rather, to speak is to act.
This way of thinking about speech is important because it provides
insight into the utility of human communication - namely, that humans
use communication as a
tool to further their own ends.
One of the original scholars in this area, Searle, identifies four basic categories of speech acts as: utterances,
propositional utterances, illocutionary utterances
and perlocutionary utterances. These are not separate and independent
of one another. Rather, they are similar to building blocks -- humans make
utterances, some of which are propositional, some of which are illocutionary,
and some of which are perlocutionary. The following sections present each type of speech act in turn.
Utterance
An utterance is a spoken word or string of spoken words. At the
simplest level, to utter is simply to say a word with no particular forethought
or intention to communicate a meaning.
For example, if you put your hand on the hood of a car that has been sitting
out in the hot sun, you might quickly pull it back while uttering the word,
"Oh!"
In this case, you don't
intend to communicate meaning by this - it is simply a
reflex action brought on by surprise. (Someone who hears you might take it
mean something, but you did not plan on it.)
Examples
of "pure" utterances include such as sing-song rhymes while jumping rope or
making choices (as, for example, "one potato, two potato, three potato,
four..."), singing "scales" for practice, and other similar meaningless
expressions.
Propositional Utterance
A more meaningful type of utterance makes reference to or describes a
real or imaginary object. In the act of making a propositional utterance the
speaker gains the opportunity to interact. If speaker and listener are using
the same code (that is, if they speak the same language), and if both recognize
the object to which the speaker is referring, then it becomes possible for them
to share meanings.
Propositional utterances need not be sentences, and they do not
have to intend anything. Any phrase that identifies or specifies something is a
propositional utterance. It is important to see that utterances and
propositions are not separate categories -- a propositional utterance is a
particular kind of utterance.
Illocutionary Utterances
An illocutionary utterance is spoken with the intention of making
contact with a listener. Illocutionary utterances are usually sentences
that contain propositional utterances, that is, they refer
to things in the
world -- but it is their intentional nature that is of the most importance.
Once it becomes clear that the speaker's intention is important to the
meaning of an utterance, it can be seen that the same set of words might
have different
meanings depending on the speaker's intention. This leads scholars to
further categorize illocutionary utterances in terms of how they
communicate such intent.
For example, consider the sentence: "I'm tired." Depending on the intention of
the speaker, this utterance could mean any of the following:
I'm tired.
| CONTEXT
|
INTENTION
|
MEANING
|
TYPE
OF ACT
|
| A
friend has just asked how I feel
|
To
answer the question
|
I
feel fatigued
|
Statement
|
| Someone
I'm trying to avoid has asked me if I'd like to go dancing tonight
|
To
politely avoid her
|
I'd
rather not
|
Statement
|
| My
husband and I are watching a football game on television
|
That
we do something else
|
Could
we turn this off?
|
Question
or Request
|
| It's
late and my small children are asking if we can go to the movies
|
To
put them to bed
|
No,
go to bed
|
Command
|
Thus, depending upon the context and the speaker's intention, a given
utterance might become a statement, a command, a question, a request, a
promise, and so on.
Perlocutionary Utterances
Illocutionary speech acts may be intended to provide information,
solicit answers to
questions, give praise, and so on, but they don't
necessarily require that the listener change his or her behavior.
Perlocutionary utterances, on the other hand,
do attempt to effect a
change.
As with the others, perlocutionary speech acts are utterances; they include
propositions, and they intend interaction with the receiver. Thus, Searle's model consists of a series of
levels, each of which forms as the foundation for the levels that rest upon it.
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The Speech Act Model
It is important to
remember that each speech act may be followed by a return act on the part of the
receiver.
The next section of this tutorial will consider how communication with feedback leads to
the kind of continuing communication that supports human relationships.
Quiz on Speech Act Types
- INTRODUCTION
Face-to-face communication happens on many channels and uses many
different codes and languages. This "interpersonal" kind of
communication can lead to the formation, maintenance and dissolution of a
multitude of human relationships.
- SPEECH ACTS
Speech was once thought of as "just talk." However, once scholars
recognized that talking is a form of doing, they begin to see the
important role that interpersonal communication plays in everyone's
everyday lives.
- RELATIONSHIPS
A relationship between two people is based not only on their exchange of
information but also their expectations as to how the communication
process will proceed.
- SELF-DISCLOSURE
If a relationship is to form and persist, then the participants must provide
one another with information about themselves.
- COORDINATED MANAGEMENT OF MEANING
The most recent theories of relationships assert that relationships form
as a result of the interaction among the individual communicators
within the cultural context of the societies in which they live.
