discourse analysis -the speech act theory

1. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
THE SPEECH ACT THEORY
Submitted by : Hamid Mnati Dafir
Submitted to : Assis.Prof. Adel Al- Thamery
(PH.D)
Basrah University /Iraq
2016

2. 1. INTRODUCTION
speech act theory was developed by the British philosopher J.L
Austin .{Baker and Ellec 89} who theorized that “ when people talk
they are performing actions with their words . They are doing things
such as writing . Promising , marrying , proposing , inviting , and so
on.” {Baker and Ellec 39} “ when a priest says “ I pronounce you
husband and wife “ to a couple , then he is performing the act of
marrying a couple . As long as certain felicity conditions (we’ll discuss
later)are met, the performative act creates a new reality. Searle
defined a classification system of speech acts as well as introducing
the notion of indirect speech by showing that a single utterance may
contain more than one type of speech act , a primary one which is
indirect and not literally performed, and a secondary one which is
direct and is performed in the literal utterance of the sentence”{Baker
and Ellec 139}
E.G Sami : I wish I was at Toys store.
Joe : O.K , I’ll take you.

3. INTRODUCTION
 Speech act theory can explain how speakers and hearers
use language , so we have three components of
communication ( the speaker ,message and hearer) .
Speech act was classified by Austin into three types :
1. Locutionary act.
2. Illocutionary act.
3. Preocutionary act. {baker and Ellec 138}
These taxonomy will be discussed by me in this presentation.

4. 2. TAXONOMY OF SPEECH ACTS
2.1 Locutionary act
The actual utterance and its ostensible meaning . “ “we can
recognize the bare fact that a communicative act takes
place”{Crystal 276}the act of saying something which is
“roughly equivalent to uttering a certain sense and
reference ,”
2.2 . Illocutionary speech act .
looking at the act that performed a result of the speaker
making an utterance – the cases where saying = doing ;
such as betting , welcoming , promising and warning “

5. 2.2 ILLOCUTIONARY
It is the speaker’s purpose or intent Ex.
I promise to pay you back . {intend to do or communicate}
David Crystal stated that “the illocutionary acts can be
grouped into basic types such as the following:
1.Representative (assertive):the speaker is committed , in
varying degrees, to the truth of a proposition .
E.g affirm , believe, conclude, deny, report.
2. Directive : the speaker tries to get the hearer to do
something . Eg ask , challenge , command , insist,
request.{Crystal 277}

6. 2.2 ILLOCUTIONARY
3. Commisives : the speaker is committed , in varying
degrees, to do something in the future. {Baker and Ellec
138) e.g. guarantee , pledge , promise, swear , vow.
4. Expressive : act that expresses the speaker’s feeling
towards something . E.g. apologize , deplore , thank ,
welcome, congratulate.
5. Declarations: acts that change reality ( such as baptizing
, pronouncing some one guilty , I resign , you are fired.
These classifications are not easy because verb meanings
are often difficult to distinguish and in the intentions of the
speakers are not always clear.

7. 2.3 PRELOCUTIONARY ACTS
The effects of the speakers’ utterances on the listeners who
can feel amused , warned persuaded ..etc.
3. Felicity conditions
The speech act will be successful only if they satisfy several
criteria known as felicity conditions. {Crystal 278} For some
clear cases the performance will be inappropriate , is not a
specific person in a particular context . For example
I sentence you with seven months in prison .(here in this
case the speaker is a judge in a courtroom){Yule 50}

8. FELICITY CONDITIONS
 Yule proposed five classes for felicity conditions they are:
1. General conditions: presupose the participant ‘s knowledge
and understanding to the language “being used and that
they are not play-acting or being non-sensical.
2. Content conditions:
concern the appropriate content of utterances that must
be about a future event .
3. Preparatory conditions:
“ For a promise are significantly different from those for
warning . When promising to do something there are two
preparatory conditions , first , the event will not happen by
itself ,the second, the event will have a beneficial effect.

9. Felicity conditions
 4. sincerity conditions:
Count with the speaker’s intention to carry out a certain act .
“ certain sincerity also have to be present . The speech act
must be performed in a sincere manner. E,g apologize ,
guarantee and vow.{Crystal 278}
5. Essential conditions :they combine with specification of
what must be in the utterance content , the context , and the
speaker ‘s intentions , in order for a specific speech acts to
be appropriately (feliciously ) performed.{Yule 51}

10. DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS
On the basis of structure we have different approach to
distinguish kinds of speech acts. Min English , we can divide
them into three basic types .in these types we have recognized
relationship between their structural form and (declarative ,
interrogative , imperative) and the communicative functions
(statement, question , command/request){Yule 54}
Eg. 1. you have a nice car. (declarative)
2. do you have a nice car?(interrogative)
3. get a nice car.(imperative)
Those speech acts directly address the listener , but most of acts
in every day conversation are indirect. There are many ways of
asking someone to do something. The direct

11.  Way is to use imperative sentence (Turn on the
T.V) but that could improper way in many situations
that could be rude for some people , so sometimes
different ways can be used to accomplish the same
function .
e.g 1.It is cold today. ( the speaker here hints to the
hearer to close the door or the conditioner)
2. Johnny , there is some chalk on the floor, the
teacher said . ( pick up the chalk)

12. Thank you