Speech Acts

By the end of the lesson, you will have been

able to:

1. Define speech acts

2. Distinguish types of speech act
3. Recognize that communicative
competence requires understanding of
speech acts
Let’s Warm Up
With a partner, take the quiz below and check if
you can discern the meaning behind the utterance.
You have five minutes to answer the exercise.

1. Consider the phrase: “I now declare Martial Law.”

Who among the following can say this phrase and
make martial law actually happen?
a. President of the country
b. My Pregnant Neighbour
c. A Retired Veterinarian
d. A Famous Rock Star
2.What do you think does the speaker mean when he/she says,
“Can you open the door?”
a. The speaker wants to know if I have the ability to open
the door.
b. The speaker is requesting me to open the door.
c. The speaker does not make sense.
d. A famous rock star.

3. You and your friend who has a fever enter your room. She shivers
and tells you, “It’s cold in here!” How would you interpret what
she said?
a. She feels cold.
b. She wants me to increase the temperature in the room.
c. She does not feel well because of the cold.
d. She is complimenting the temperature in my room.
4. Based on the scenario in Item number 3, what would your next
action be?
a. I will thank my friend.
b. I will agree with her and say that the room is cold
c. I will increase the temperature to decrease the coldness.
d. I will ignore my friend.

5. In which of the following statements is the speaker making a

commitment?
a. “I checked her Facebook profile yesterday”
b. “I am in love and I am happy”
c. “I promise to love you for better or for worse”
d. “I think following my suggestion will get us a high grade”.
Let’s Work and Learn

Exercise 1 (Pair)
1. Watch the first video of telephone conversation through this link:

C:\Users\ACER\Downloads\Programs\Video\
Sample Order Taking - Customer Support
Philippines.mp4
2. With a partner, discuss your answers to the
following questions.
a. What greeting is used by the
costumer service agent?
b. What form of personal identification is used by
the agent?
c. What pre-closing signals are used by the agent?
d. What closing is used by the agent?
Speech acts theory
The theory was first used in
1962 book entitled "How to
Do Things with Words" by
J.L.Astin
A Speech act Is a functional unit in communication. It is an
act that the speaker performs when he makes an utterance
Ex. a request, a command, a greeting, a promise, an apology

What is an utterance?
Utter means "to say" So when you're saying something, you're
making utterances.
Ex. Saying "24" in math class is an utterance.
A police officer yelling "Stop!" is an utterance.
Even a long speech by the President is an utterance. If you
can't hear it, it's not an utterance
Austin (1962) and Searle (1981) established that whenever
we say something, three simultaneous acts are performed:
A. locutionary act
B. Illocutionary act
C. Perlocutinary act
Locutionnary Act
What is actually said by a speaker.
Illocutionary Act
What is verbally accomplished by what is said.
Type of Illocution
 Assertive
 Directives
 Commissives
 Expressives
 Declarations
Perlocutionary act
Is The result or effect that that is produced by the utterance in the
given context , What the hearer does in response to the utterance
Example:

Suppose that a bartender utters the words "the bar will be closed in 5 minutes"
1- Locutionary Act  saying that the bar will be closed in 5 minutes
Act of saying
2- Illocutionary Act  the act of informing the customers of the bar's imminent closing and
perhaps also the act of urging them to order a last drink
Function: info-persuasion
3- Perlocutionary Act  the bartender intends to be performing this act by causing the
customers to believe the bar is about to close, and of getting them to want and to lrder
one last drink
Effect
Directive and Commissive speech act

According to Searle’s classification there types of illocutionary acts such as

directive and commissives.
Directive

Directive is a speech act that is to cause the hearer to take a particular action,
to engage the hearer to do something such as ordering, asking and forbidding.
 1) don’t touch that!
 2) Give me your pen.
 3) do your homework.
 4) May I have some soda? Is there any milk left?
Commissives

Commissive is a speech act that commits a speaker to some future action

Commissive indicates commitment, committing or engaging my self to do
something to another person. Such as promising, vowing, inviting and
offering.
 1) I’ll take you to the mall.
 2) Don’t worry, I’ll not go.
 3) I promise I’ll call you tomorrow.
 Don’t be
late

Can you get

Wait here I me soda
will get please.
something to
drink