Escolar Documentos
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AND EVENTS
SPEECH ACTS
(AUSTIN, 1962)
Only if a sentence can be verified as truthful or
false it is meaningful…
Good morning!
Is she a vegan?
Put the car in the garage, please…
e.g.
“The tea is really cold.”
Speech acts
The action performed by producing an utterance
will consist of three related acts:
e.g.
e.g.
warning
promise
prediction
Examples:
Give me an apple.
Locutionary act: the utterance itself.
Illocutionary act: Request, command.
Perlocutionary act (presumably): A passes
B an apple.
IFIDS
Implicit performatives
Sometimes a stronger version of the
utterance.
SEARLE´S CLASSIFICATION OF SPEECH ACTS
A better choice to classify SA´s?
Questions or requests?
Could you pass the salt?
Would you open this?
Speech events
It is an activity in which participants interact
via language in some conventional way to
arrive at so me outcome.
BASIC CONCEPTS
Much of what we say and communicate is
determined by our social relationships. A
linguistic interaction is necessarily a social
interaction
External factors relating to social
distance/closeness are established prior to an
interaction:
relative status of the participants as
determined by factors like age and power
-
Speakers who see themselves as lower
status tend to mark social distance
between themselves.
Social distance
Intimates and strangers
POLITENESS MAXIMS: Leech, 1983
Tact: minimize cost/maximize benefit to the other
person
Could I interrupt you for half a second – what was the website
address?
Generosity: maximize cost/minimize benefit to yourself
Could I copy the web address?
Approbation: minimize dispraise/maximize praise of the other
person
Mary you’re always so efficient – do you have copy of that web
address?
Modesty: maximize dispraise/minimize praise of yourself
Oh I’m so stupid – I didn’t make a not of that web address. Did
you?
Agreement: minimize disagreement/maximize
agreement between self and other
Yes, of course you’re right, but your decision might
make her very unhappy
Sympathy: minimize antipathy/maximize sympathy
between self and other
I was very sorry to hear about your father’s death
Additional maxim proposed by Cruse (2000):
Consideration: minimize discomfort or displeasure/
maximize comfort or pleasure of other
Visitor to patient in hospital: You’re lucky to be in
here, it’s raining outside (Billy Connolly)
Face
Withineveryday social interaction people
generally behave as if their expectations
concerning their face wants (i.e. public
self-image) will be respected.
positive
face: need to be
accepted/liked, to be treated as a
member of the same group, to know that
wants are shared by others.
Brown and Levinson (1978/87) in
Uh,
I forgot my pen.
Where is the pen.
Hmm, I wonder where I put my pen
On record
Directly address the other person to express
your needs
Using imperative forms is known as bald on
record (speaker assumes he/she has power
over the other)
Give me a pan
Lend me your pen
Mitigating devices
(e.g.'please', 'would you') can be used to
soften the demand
Caution: Not all imperatives are commands
Don'ttouch that!
Get out of here!
Run!
“Negativepoliteness is concerned with
other people’s need not to be intruded or
imposed upon
“Positive
politeness” is concerned with
their need for inclusion and social
approval.
A positive politeness strategy leads the
requester to appeal to a common
goal, even friendship
Hi,
How's it going? Okay if I sit here? We
must be interested in the same crazy stuff.
You take a lot of notes too, huh? Say, do
me a big favor and let me use one of your
pens…
A negative politeness strategy is more
commonly performed in face saving
acts
- modal verbs
- apologies for the imposition
- Hesitations
- questions (even asking for permission to ask a
question)
+ more indirect approach softens refusal
Face saving acts on record are less
direct, longer, less clear, with a more
complex structure, showing greater
effort, concern for face (politeness)