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Language and Performance

Published on Jun 14, 2016

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Language and Performance

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What are the various functions of speech acts?

Speech Acts

  • Austin (1962) and Searle (1969)-it is possible to classify utterances into very small set of functions.
  • We ought to assign functions to utterances
  • Problem: speaker’s intent and meaning may not be similar.
  • It’s rather warm in here, isn’t it? An ice-breaker or a request?
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J.L. Austin's speech acts

  • locution: what is said
  • illocution: what was meant
  • perlocution: what happens as a result
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At dinner, someone says "is there any salt?" Someone else responds by handing them salt

Breakdown

  • locutionary act: asked about the presence of salt
  • illocutionary act: the meaning conveyed of "please hand me some salt"
  • perlocutionary act: to hand over the salt

Performative utterances: sentences which are not only describing a given reality, but also changing the social reality they are describing

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Features of performative utterances

  • are not true or false; not truth-evaluable
  • issued in the course of doing an act that goes beyond saying or describing something (an illocutionary act)
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"I promise to do the dishes"

  • not just saying something or describing an action; he/she is actually making a promise
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Other examples of performative utteranes

  • "I do" during a marriage ceremony
  • "I name this ship the 'Queen Elizabeth'"
  • "I give and bequeath my watch to my brother" in a will
  • "I bet you sixpence it will rain tomorrow"
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Other examples

  • Greeting (in saying, "Hi John!", for instance), apologizing, making a request and giving an order ("Could you pass the salt?" and "Drop your weapon or I'll shoot you!"), or making a promise ("I promise I'll give it back")
  • In saying, "Watch out, the ground is slippery", Peter performs the speech act of warning Mary to be careful.

John Searle's type of performatives

  • assertives = commit a speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition
  • directives = cause the hearer to take action
  • commissives = commit a speaker to future action
  • expressives = express the speaker's attitudes towards the proposition
  • declarations = change the reality
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Names as performatives?

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