Speech act exercises
1. Here are the 5 groups of speech acts. Match the label to the examples:
Representatives commit a speaker to the truth of an expressed proposition.
Labels: asserting, stating, concluding, boasting, describing, suggesting.
o I am a great singer.
o Bill was an accountant.
Commissives commit a speaker to some future action.
Labels: promising, pledging, threatening, vowing, offering.
o I am going to leave you.
o I'll call you tonight.
Directives are used by a speaker who attempts to get the addressee to carry out an action.
Labels: requesting, advising, commanding, challenging, inviting, daring, entreating.
o You'd better tidy up that mess.
o Sit down.
Declarations affect an immediate change of affairs.
Labels: declaring, baptising, resigning, firing from employment, hiring, arresting.
o We find the defendant guilty.
o I resign.
Expressives espress some sort of psychological state.
Labels: greeting, thanking, apologising, complaining, congratulating.
o This beer is disgusting.
o I'm sorry to hear that.
Try to locate the speech acts of
divorcing,
answering,
complaining,
declaring guilty .
2. Action as Answer
a. Standing by the side of a swimming pool, you say to a small boy "Can you swim?" expecting either "Yes" or
"No" as an answer. However, he jumps into the pool instead.
Explain how he interpreted your words.
b. You ask, "Is there any beer in the fridge?"
Does the same explanation hold for the reply "I'll bring you one in a minute" rather than "Yes, we don't
need to buy any"?
3. The performative Hypothesis: Implicit and Explicit
a. Change the following implicit performatives (sometimes also called primary performative) into an explicit
performative:
Clean up this mess!
Guests arriving late to the concert will have to wait outside for the first pause.
b. Is the effect the same for the implicit and explicit performatives?
c. What is the explicit performative word for: You are a stupid cow!
d. Now that you have the solution for a., can you explain why “I hereby despise this ground!” is funny?
4. Felicity conditions
Below you see listed some felicity conditions on promise.
A promises B to do X:
A believes B wants X done. (X is A threatens B:
beneficial for B.) A…
A is able to do X. A
A is willing to do X. A
X has not already been done. X
Now, what change(s) could you make in order to provide felicity conditions on threaten? Write in the box.
Hint: You can do it by adding just a couple of words to one of the conditions above.
5. For each of the utterances below, a. name the possible speech act performed, b. describe a felicity condition, c.
decide whether the speech act is direct or indirect (form (question, statement, imperative) vs function).
possible speech act felicity condition direct / indirect
a) Can you make your bed?
b) Have a safe journey.
c) Where do you live?
d) I wonder what happened to Mary.
e) I hear there’s a fire in the next
building.
f) Enjoy yourself!
g) Can you people at the back hear me?
