Speech Act Theory

"Where you go?": Teaching Thai students about speech acts

by Gregory Bornmann

ThaiTESOL Bulletin, 14:2, 16-20. (August, 2001)

As the form and significance of speech acts vary across cultures, language teachers must do more than simply supply... more As the form and significance of speech acts vary across cultures, language teachers must do more than simply supply their students with grammar and vocabulary. Speech acts such as greetings and leave-takings, "please" and "thank you," compliments and responses, requests and rejections, and accepting invitations, can cause difficulty for Thai learners of English due to differing politeness strategies and cultural norms. Thai learners sometimes use phrases and strategies from Thai when speaking English, such as asking "Where you go?" as a greeting; thanking less frequently than native speakers; and saying "Yes" when they mean "No". Such interference (the transfer of L1 pragmatic norms and strategies to L2) can lead to misunderstandings or "pragmatic failure."

Análisis contrastivo de la formulación de recomendaciones en dos géneros jurídicos

by Raquel Taranilla

Contrastive analysis of the linguistic expression of recommendation in two
legal genres

"In the beginning was the Speech Act..": Austin, Searle, and the Old Testament

by Gregory Bornmann

Journal of Kibi International University, 3, 243-252. March 1993.

Speech acts, especially those associated with promising, occupy a prominent place in the Old Testament. In an... more Speech acts, especially those associated with promising, occupy a prominent place in the Old Testament. In an important sense. the Hebrew Bible is a book of speech acts, not simply because it contains speech acts. but because it is about speech acts--about the rules for their successful performance and about the consequences that follow from disregarding these rules. Further, while the Old Testament can be read as a book of speech act theory, critics have commented on the "ideological" or "moral" slant of the work of Austin and Searle, sometimes associated with a peculiar bias toward the class of illocutions which Austin calls "commissives"--utterances, such as promises. which commit the speaker to a future behavior. Thus, given the shared concerns of the Old Testament and the principle text s of Speech Act Theory, it is hoped that a comparative study of these two fields of discourse may succeed in shedding light on them both .

Conventions and intentions: Speech Act Theory in an intercultural context

by Gregory Bornmann

Journal of Kibi International University, 4, 199-208. March 1994.

An ideological critique of speech act theory may help us to understand some of the differences that exist between... more An ideological critique of speech act theory may help us to understand some of the differences that exist between American and Japanese communicative contexts. Cross-cultural studies of particular speech acts suggest an ongoing conflict between politeness and sincerity, convention and intention. Convention and intention are logically incompatible, as they can offer conflicting explanations for the same utterance. But as Derrida (1977) demonstrates, determinations of meaning oscillate unstoppably between these two models. The model which is emphasized will vary from context to context, and from culture to culture. We may infer th at the Japanese interpret many speech acts by reference to social conventions, with little regard for sincerity. However , we may also infer that Americans, focusing on intention, often have an idealized and therefore unrealistic view of their own speech behavior due to what Pratt (1986) calls "the ideology of sincerity:'

Speech Act Theory - A Critical Overview

by Loftur Árni Björgvinsson

B.A. Thesis in English with a sprinkling of philosophy.

This paper examines J.L. Austin's theory regarding speech acts, or how we do things with words. It starts by reviewing... more This paper examines J.L. Austin's theory regarding speech acts, or how we do things with words. It starts by reviewing the birth and foundation of speech act theory as it appeared in the 1955 William James Lectures at Harvard before going into what Austin's theory is and how it can be applied to the real world.
The theory is explained and analysed both in regards to its faults and advantages. Proposals for the improvement of the theory are then developed, using the ideas of other scholars and theorists along with the ideas of the author.
The taxonomy in this essay is vast and various concepts and conditions are introduced and applied to the theory in order for it to work. Those conditions range from being conditions of appropriateness through to general principles of communication.
In this essay utterances are examined by their propositional content, the intention of the utterance, and its outcome. By studying how utterances are formed and issued, along with looking into utterance circumstances and sincerity, one can garner a clear glimpse into what constitutes a performative speech act and what does not.
By applying the ideas of multiple thinkers in unison it becomes clear that a) any one single theory does not satisfyingly explain all the intricacies of the theory and b) most utterances which are not in the past tense can be considered to be either performative or as having some performative force.

L'assertion en débat: l'investigation en (ou d'un) acte

by Sylvie Grosjean

In L'ASSERTION EN DÉBAT (N° 5-6), La description du monde dans la conversation, Psychologie de l'interaction n°5.

Toteutuvat sanat: kohtalon artikulointi islantilaisessa saagassa

by Joonas Ahola

"Fulfilling words. Articulation of Fate in Icelandic Saga."
In Korkeempi kaiku. Knuuttila, S. & Piela, U. (eds.). Helsinki : Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura p. 161-173. (Kalevalaseuran vuosikirja; 88) 2009.

Sprechakttheorie und Psychoanalytische Literaturwissenschaft. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Literature and Psychoanalysis, Freiburg, June 1995. Ed. by F. Pereira. Lisbon: Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada 1996, 215-219.

by Walter Schönau

Aesthetics and pragmatics: Conversion, constitution and the dimensions of illocutionary acts

by Katya Mandoki

Le silence en tant qu’acte de langage, ou quand (ne pas) dire, c’est (dé)faire - Stratégie et temporalités

by Benoit Cordelier

THE SPEECH ACTS THEORY APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS OF COMMUNICATIVE ASPECTS OF THE EVANGELIC TEXTS

by Regina Vavrinchik

published in the framework of the conference Fiatal Kutatok es Doktoranduszok II. Nemzetkozi Teologuskonferenciaja (Budapest 2011 Oktober 14-16)

Blasphemies: a speech act perspective (2011)

by Neri Marsili

Lecture for the XII ‘Pathaphisical Symposium held Prague, September 2011

This study presents an innovative challenge for speech act theory: understanding blasphemy. The results shows that a... more This study presents an innovative challenge for speech act theory: understanding blasphemy. The results shows that a pragmatic approach can offer significant improvement to theological and moral comprehension of blasphemy.

Fides quaerens verbum hodiernum: alternative creeds and speech acts

by Jean Pierre van Noppen

Crafting Communication Activity: Understanding Felicity in" I Wish I..." Compliments

by Mark Aakhus

Aakhus, M., & Aldrich, A. (2002). Crafting Communication Activity: Understanding Felicity in "I Wish I. . ." Compliments. Research on Language & Social Interaction, 35(4), 395-425.

A fundamental issue for pragmatics is how people mutually negotiate social activity through language. It is... more A fundamental issue for pragmatics is how people mutually negotiate social activity through language. It is interesting that standard treatments for understanding the function of messages focus on how grammatical and illocutional features of messages signal speaker intention. The preoccupation of these approaches with defining felicity conditions overlooks how felicity is worked out in interaction. This study reconsiders the role of felicity conditions in interaction and shows how they are back- ground assumptions interactants use as pragmatic resources to craft activity rather than conventional guarantors of a speaker’s intentional meaning in making an utterance. This is accomplished by using data from 2 compliment corpora and analyzing messages that begin with “I wish I. . .” that appear in those data sets.

Regarding Doing Being Ordinary

by J. David Velleman

The individuation of actions is socially constructed, via a process of unmanaged coordination on a taxonomy of... more The individuation of actions is socially constructed, via a process of unmanaged coordination on a taxonomy of actions. Since our individual decisions are framed by the individuation of the alternatives, they are influenced by the results of social coordination.

Performing legal order

by Niels Glæsner

Published in Semikolon 22

This short article draws an analogy between the speech act theory as formulated by John Langshaw Austin and the... more This short article draws an analogy between the speech act theory as formulated by John Langshaw Austin and the approach to the legal order found in the work of Carl Schmitt. Based on this analogy, it argues that the speech act theory is a productive tool for understanding the way in which the use of language to deploy juridical rules reconfirms and thus reproduces the existing legal order.

Emotions without psychology

by Anna C. Zielinska

« Emotions without Psychology», History and Philosophy of Psychology, Journal of the British Psychological Society, 10 (2008), pp. 32-41.

Psychological (or further, neurological, etc.) examination of emotional states in order to understand what they really... more Psychological (or further, neurological, etc.) examination of emotional states in order to understand what they really stand for is not the most interest way, for a philosopher to take them into account from his/her specific pint of view. This is not how the expressions denoting those states become valuable for us.

In ethics, i.e. the discipline which, among others, analyses what is said, thought or felt about something from an evaluative point of view (meta-ethics), or suggests what should be said, thought or felt about it (practical ethics), emotions may play various roles. I shall propose a project of the grammar of emotions, which aims at preserving a specific normativity of philosophical, or moral, discourse. This very notion of grammar must get a further analysis, since even if it has a double normative and descriptive dimension proper to its linguistic equivalent, it does not have (or should not have) systematic ambitions.

Performing political partnership - A study of EU-Liberia relations

by Sigrid Bjerre Andersen

The thesis investigates the concept of political partnership as a way of describing relations between the European... more The thesis investigates the concept of political partnership as a way of describing relations between the European Union and the ACP countries (Africa, Carribean and Pacific countries), and approaches political partnership through a case study of the EU‘s relations to one specific ACP country, Liberia.
Political partnership is understood as being based upon principles of ownership, equality, and mutual responsibility, and at the same time as presenting specific political principles as crucial to development. It is linked to a donor-recipient relation, and hence holds the potential to be used as conditionality. The thesis looks at how these contradictions harboured by the concept of political partnership are negotiated in the specific context of EU-Liberia relations.
Within the thesis, partnership is understood as an 'interpellation‘: a specific mode of address, creating possibilities and constraints for the EU and Liberia. The thesis hence focuses on how the EU and Liberia, respectively, respond to the specific address of 'political partner'. The interpellation perspective furthermore understands subjectivity as constituted in response to an address, and hereby allows for an illustration of how the EU is dependent upon Liberia in becoming a political partner. In this way, focus is directed towards how political partnership offers possibilities of discursive agency to donors and recipients alike.

Forma y función de los enunciados jurídicos de recomendación: las Recomendaciones de la Comisión Europea

by Raquel Taranilla

in CHIERICHETTI, Luisa & GAROFALO, Giovanni (eds.) Lengua y derecho: líneas de investigación interdisciplinaria. Bern: Peter Lang, 249-272.

La operación de recomendar en los discursos profesionales

by Raquel Taranilla

in DE OTTO, Esperanza & LÓPEZ DE VERGARA, Alejandro (coords.). Las lenguas para fines específicos ante el reto de la Convergencia Europea. VIII Congreso Internacional AELFE, Universidad de La Laguna, 3, 4 y 5 de septiembre de 2009, 459-474. (Co-authored with LÓPEZ SAMANIEGO, A).