Speech acts

Page 1

Speech Acts, classical views Austin delivered his series of lectures on “How to do Things with Words”. The research program that is laid out in these lectures promised to carry the study of semantics beyond the dullness of asserting information. The magic of speech acts seems to consist in the fact that the speaker can change the world’s course by a mere utterance. Say Sesamy, open! and the mountain moves. This motivates the classical distinction between locution, illocution and perlocution.  locutionary act = S utters a certain string of words.  illocutionary act = all circumstances being correct, S brings about a speech act by the locutionary act.  perlocutionary act = effects of the speech act on the addressee. 1.2. Felicitous and infelicitous acts As we saw, not any utterance of the appropriate form causes an act to take place. In this section, we will review Austin’s list of (types of) background conditions that have to be fulfilled in order for a speech act to succeed. (A.1) There must be an accepted conventional procedure having a certain conventional effect, that procedure to include the uttering of certain words by certain persons in certain circumstances, and further (A.2) the particular persons and circumstances in a given case must be appropriate for the invocation of the particular procedure invoked. (B.1) The procedure must be executed by all participants both correctly and (B.2) completely. (C.1) Where, as often, the procedure is designed for use by persons having certain thoughts or feelings, or for the inauguration of certain consequential conduct on the part of any participant, then a person participating in and so invoking the procedure must in fact have those thoughts or feelings, and the participants must intend so to conduct themselves, and further. (C.2) must actually so conduct themselves subsequently. Searle suggested that the lexical content of performative verbs and the conditions of use should be tied in a more systematic manner. He proposes the following types of rule: propositional content rules preparatory rules sincerity rules essential rule  The essential rule corresponds, roughly, to Austin’s observation that the language community must have a convention that such-and-such


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.