Speech Acts

Direct and indirect speech acts

• In his famous work, How to do Things with Words
1953), J. L. Austin outlined his Theory of Speech Acts
and the concept of performative language, in which to
say something is to do something.
– E.g. requests, ask questions, give orders, make promises,
give thanks, offer apologies, and so on.

• To make the statement “I promise that p” (in which p is

the propositional content of the utterance) is to
perform the act of promising
• Austin drew a distinction between utterances
performing an action, performatives, and
statements that convey information , i.e.
constatives.
• I apologize for the delay [either felicitous or
infelicitous]
• The window is open [either true or false]
 Felicity conditions
• For a speech act to be felicitous, it has to meet felicity conditions, i.e. expected or appropriate
circumstances for a speech act to be recognized as intended

• Several kinds of felicity conditions have been identified, including

sincerity conditions (whether the speech act is being performed seriously and sincerely);
– promise: speaker genuinely intends to carry out the future action
– warning: speaker genuinely believes the future event will not have a beneficial effect

preparatory conditions (whether the authority of the speaker and the circumstances of the speech
act are appropriate)
– I sentence you to six months in prison
the performance will be infelicitous if the speaker is not a judge in a courtroom

content conditions: e.g. for promises/warnings the content of the utterance must be about a future
event

If any of these conditions is lacking, then the hearers will deduce that they have to make a different
interpretation of the speech act.
 An action performed by producing an
utterance consists of three related acts:
• locutionary act: basic act of utterance,
producing a meaningful linguistic expression
– I've just made some coffee
• illocutionary act: function/communicative force
of the utterance (also called illocutionary force).
– It can be a statement, offer, explanation etc.
• perlocutionary act: intended effect of the
action (also called perlocutionary effect)
 And that is enough for today…
• Locutionary act (and that is enough for today)

• Illocutionary act ( students make

preparations to quit the room)

• Perloctionary act (you realise that a change

has occurred)
• the same locutionary act can count as
different illocutionary forces
I'll see you later
can be a prediction, promise or warning

• Only the context can clarify its illocutionary

force
 Utterance:
The tea is really cold!

• Situation A: On a wintry day, the speaker reaches for

a cup of tea, believing that it has been freshly made,
takes a sip, and produces the utterance
– > complaint

• Situation B: On a really hot summer's day the

speaker is being given a glass of iced tea, takes a sip,
and produces the utterance
– > praise
• Austin maintained that once “we realize that what we
have to study is not the sentence but the issuing of an
utterance in a speech situation, there can hardly be any
longer a possibility of not seeing that stating is
performing an act”.

• This conclusion expresses his belief that studying words

or sentences (locutionary acts) outside of a social
context tells us little about communication (illocutionary
acts) or its effect on an audience (perlocutionary acts).
• John Searle, who continued Austin’s theory,
claims the illocutionary act is “the minimal
complete unit of human linguistic
communication. Whenever we talk or write to
each other, we are performing illocutionary
acts”.
 Performative verbs
• In some utterances the verb explicitly indicates the
illocutionary Force. Such verbs are called performative verbs
• I promise/warn you that ..., I apologise… I promise….

• they are not always made this explicit in conversation

• A: Can I talk to Mary?
• B: No, she's not here.
• A: I'm asking you - can I talk to her?
• B: And I'm telling you - She is not here!!!!
• - most of the time there is no performative verb mentioned
 Explict vs implicit performatives
• Explicit performatives are performative utterances that contain a
performative verb that makes explicit what kind of act is being
performed.

I promise to come to your talk tomorrow afternoon.

• implicit performatives are performative utterances in which

there is no such verb. The only way to understand that this is a
performative utterance is by considering the real intention
behind that utterance. Here the context plays an important role.

I’ll come to your talk tomorrow afternoon. (A promise? A threat)

 Common explicit performatives

• apology,
• promise,
• agreement
• acceptance
• advice
• suggestion
• warning
• requests
• betting
• to second
• to vote
• to abstain
 Classification of speech acts (Searle)
• DECLARATIONS: - speech acts that change the world by being uttered. The
speaker has to have a special institutional role, in a specific situation
– Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife
– Referee: You're out
– Jury Foreman: We find the defendant guilty

• REPRESENTATIVES: speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the
case or not (statements of fact, assertions, conclusions and descriptions are all
examples of the speaker representing the world as he/she believes it is)
– The earth is flat (I hereby affirm that…)
– Chomsky didn't write about peanuts
– It was a warm sunny day, I think.

the speaker is committed in varying degrees to the truth of a proposition: e.g.

‘affirm’, ‘believe,’ ‘conclude’, ‘report’;
• DIRECTIVES. The speaker tries to get the hearer to do something
(commands, orders, requests, suggestions…)
– Gimme a cup of coffe. Make it black
– Could you lend me a pen, please?
– Don't touch that

• COMMISSIVES: - speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves

to some future action (promises, threats, refusals, pledges)
– I'll be back
– I'm going to get it right next time
– We will not do that

• EXPRESSIVES: the speaker expresses an attitude about a state of

affairs (e.g., ‘apologise’, ‘deplore’, ‘thank’, ‘welcome’)
– Well done, Elisabeth!
 Indirect Speech Acts
• For many reasons, for example we don’t wish
to impose – we may ask for something to be
done indirectly. ‘Can you pass the salt’ is not
really a question, but a directive; and answer
of ‘yes’, without an attempt to pass it would
be totally inappropriate.
 Sentence type and illocutionary force
• The three basic sentence types (declarative,
interrogative, imperative) are typically
associated with the three basic illocutionary
forces:
• Declarative: asserting/ stating;
• Interrogative: asking/questioning;
• imperative: ordering/requesting.
 Direct vs indirect speech acts
• Direct Speech Act: Whenever there is a direct relationship between
a structure and a function

– You wear a seat belt. (declarative)

– Do you wear a seat belt? (interrogative)
– Wear a seat belt! (imperative)

• Indirect Speech Act: if the relationship between structure and

function is indirect, e.g. a declarative used to make a request

– “It's cold outside” can be interpreted as

– a request to close the door (indirect speech act), or
– I hereby tell you about the weather (direct speech act)
 direct vs indirect speech acts
• explicit performatives which happen to be in the declarative form,
are also taken to be direct speech acts, because they have their
illocutionary force explicitly named

I suggest following his advice (declarative)

Normally a declarative sentence uttered to perform a directive

speech act would qualify as an indirect speech act, but in this case
the explicit performative makes it a direct speech act.
• Example: Speaker wants hearer not to stand in
front of the TV
– Move out of the way!
(Imperative -> direct speech act)
– Do you have to stand in front of the TV?
(Interrogative -> indirect speech act)
– You're standing in front of the TV
(Declarative -> indirect speech act)
 Gradation of Indirect Speech Act

• Shut the door!

• I’d be grateful, if you’d shut the door.
• Could you shut the door?
• It’d help to have the door shut.
• It’s getting cold in here. Shall we keep out the
draught?
• Now, Jane, what have you forgotten to do? Brrr!
 Speech Acts in Use
Consider the following cartoon and analyze Wally's answer on the basis
of the distinction made between direct and indirect speech acts.
• Wally misunderstands the instructor’s indirect
request for action (Who wants to share an
opinion on why mouse training is important?)
as an information question.