Types of Speech Act
Searle (2014:1) point
out that the most important are illocutionary point, direction of fit, and
expressed psychological state. These three form the basis of
a taxonomy of the
fundamental classes of
illocutionary acts. The five basic kinds of illocutionary acts are:
representatives (or assertives), directives, commissives, expressives,
and declarations. Each of
these notions is defined. An earlier attempt at constructing a taxonomy
by Austin is defective for several
reasons, especially in its lack of
clear criteria for distinguishing one
kind of illocutionary force from
another.
Yarahmadi and Olfati
(2011: 2523) In everyday communication reading between the lines is an
important skill, in order to understand what people want to say, five
taxonomies in speech acts. The selected speech acts in the plays will be
analyzed within the structure of five major speech acts as follows:
1. Assertives (representatives),
Assertives (representatives), which commit the
speaker to the truth of something (i.e. asserting, claiming, reporting). Assertive
speech acts are also known as representative speech acts because they reflect
the speaker’s as well as the narrative belief. Beijer (2000:7)
A
Assertives (representatives) have a WORDS-TO-WORLD direction of fit, i.e. their
truth values are assigned on the basis of whether or not the words describe
things as they are in the world spoken of. Assertives (representatives) is
characterised by the fact that the speaker commits himself to the truth of the
expressed proposition, as in an assertion or a conclusion
According to Searle the purpose of Assertive class
is to commit the speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition. That is to
say the speaker wants to make the listener believe the truth of what he or she
said.
It is the Assertive speech act that most closely
resembles Austin’s constative utterance. The speaker asserts a proposition that
represent a condition or a state of affairs that in principle could be true or
false. Assertive speech acts are statements of fact, getting the viewer to form
or attend a belief. Here, the speaker’s words reveal his beliefs and he/she is
uttering about external world. English verbs that function as explicit
assertive include: report, predict, inform, accuse, testify, confess, state,
swear, criticize, complain, etc.
The various verbs differ from one another by force or
strength of the assertion. On comes across some examples of assertive Speech
acts in the play under consideration. Let us examine the following speech act
in the light of Searle’s speech act theory. The
following Selected part
is the best
instance of Assertive
Speech acts in
the play under consideration. It is the opening
dialogue of the play, presents a perfect example of self-obsession[4]. All of
the characters in the chain at some time in the play become self-obsessed; some
of them never acquire the necessary objectivity to see themselves and others
clearly
2. Directives
Directive which are attempts of the speaker to get
the hearer to do something (i.e. ordering, commending, requesting, begging). A
Directive speech act occurs when the speaker expects the listener to do
something as a response. For example, the speaker may ask a question, make a
request, or issue an invitation. Many Directive sentences are posed as
questions so they are easy to identify by the presence of a question mark.
However, the language here is informal and often ungrammatical; so many
directives are posed as a question mark. Furthermore, many directive speech
acts are not stated as a question but as a request for assistance. Finally,
some sentences that end in question marks are rhetorical in nature and do not
represent a directive speech act. This class includes commands, suggestions and
orders
3. Commissive
Commissive which
commit the speaker
to do some
future action (i.e.
promising, offering, threatening).
The illocutionary point of commissive speech act is to commit speaker to
perform some future action. This kind of speech act even called intended act.
In conversation, common commissive speech acts are promise and threats. In
message boards, these types of commissives are relatively rare; however, we
found many statements where the purpose was to confirm the readers that the
writer would perform some action in the
future. The class
involves promising, vowing,
refusing, threatening, pledging, guaranteeing etc
4.
Expressive
Expressive which express a psychological state (i.e.
thanking, apologizing, complimenting). The illocutionary goal of expressive is
to express the psychological state about some affairs. By expressive, the
speaker should express his psychological state about some affairs. Typical
cases are when the speaker curses, praises, confesses or congratulates, the
listener. Let’s turn to the play to see some instances that show Expressive
Speech Acts
5. Declarative
Declarative which bring out the correspondence
between the propositional content and reality (I.e., appointing a chairman,
nominating a candidate, marrying a person, christening). Searle defines
Declarative speech acts as statements that bring about a change in status or
condition to an object by virtue of the statement itself. For example, a
statement declaring war or a statement that someone is fired. As soon as
addresser utters the words, the very utterance brings about a change in the hearer’s
world. The prelocutionary effect is immediately felt on the hearer. The class
includes betting, declaring, resigning, passing a sentence, answering,
appointing, nominating, applying, etc. These speech acts are uncommon.
Therefore, the frequency of the use of these speech acts is very less.
The above mentioned
part is the categories of illocutionary Act presented by John Searle, it is
about the underlying meaning in everything we say. The underlying meaning along
with the skill of reading between the lines is vital to make communication more
efficient and it makes our everyday life function more smoothly.
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