SPEECH ACTS - DIRECT VS INDIRECT

Linguistic forms:

interrogative, imperative, declarative

1. Interrogative: A sentence or structure used to ask questions. It often begins with words like "who," "what," "where," "why," "how," or uses auxiliary verbs (e.g., "Do you like it?").

2. Imperative: A sentence used to give commands, requests, or instructions. It usually lacks a subject, and the verb is in its base form (e.g., "Close the door" or "Please sit down").

3. Declarative: A sentence that makes a statement or provides information. It typically follows a subject-verb-object order and ends with a period (e.g., "She is reading a book").

Functions of utterances

(=what we do by using a piece of language)

:

question, command (request), inform (state)

Types of speech acts and explain

• Direct …: when we use a certain linguistic form for its typical function

• Indirect …: when we use a certain linguistic form for a less typical function

Felicity conditions:

the necessary conditions that must be met for a speech act to be considered valid and effective in communication - felicitous

conventions that speakers and addressees use as a code to produce and recognize actions

Under the right circumstances
Using the right expression
- if felicity conditions are not satisfied, the act misfires

infelicitous speech

If the speaker is unintelligible, lacks the authority or status to speak those words, or is insincere, then her utterances are infelicitous

If the listener doesn't act on those words, then the speech is infelicitous

performatives

Speech acts in which you do something by saying it

- for instance, by saying "I pronounce you husband and wife." the priest marries two people - declaration

congratulating, greetings, offers, apologies, promises…

the co-operative principle and individuals observe a —- cooperative principle

= knowledge of how to say it and what to say
In a conversation people normally cooperate with one another and they assume that others are cooperating too
No matter what you do, participants in a speech event presume that you are cooperating!
if you seem to say less than is required, you do it for some reason…
or if you seem to say something that is not relevant, you do it for some reason…

individuals observe a general cooperative principle

cooperating means:

1) always say as much as is necessary (not more or less) = Maxim of Quantity
2) always say what you believe to be true (or otherwise make it clear that you do not know whether it is true) = Maxim of Quality
3) talk about the topic of the conversation (and not something unrelated) = Maxim of Relation
4) say things in an orderly and unambiguous manner = Maxim of Manner

In communication we can observe or violate…

- well-known phrase that expresses something that is usually true

Have you finished your homework and put the books away?
B: Yes, I have.
[in other words, B has done both things = if not then maxims have not been observed]

A: Have you finished your homework and put the books away?
B: I have finished my homework.
[in other words, B implies that he has done only one thing = so as to observe the maxims]

A: Where is John?
B: He said he would be going to the store.
[I do not know but I do not want to lie to you (i.e. I want to say what I believe is true)]

MAXIM

Violation of maxims

• meaningful (communicative) (e.g., to save face, because of economy, etc.)

• accidental (non-communicative: misunderstanding or some other reason)

  A: Do they still have the book in Algoritam?
  B: I know they do, but if you were thinking of getting it now, they are already closed.
  [B is seemingly offering more information than is required by the question (violating the quantity maxim), but is in fact cooperating]
  
  A: Give me the car keys.
  B: But you had a beer and I didn’t.
  [B seems to violate the Maxim of Relation (s/he is saying something that is not relevant), but is in fact making an indirect objection – saying that A should not be driving]
  

hedges and types

If you are uncertain of something you are saying you use

words or phrases used to soften or express uncertainty about a statement (e.g., "maybe," "I think," "perhaps")

Various types:
lexical expressions (maybe, perhaps…)
grammatical expressions (epistemic modal verbs): He must have gone to the cinema

one of the reasons to violate maxims

politeness

can be defined as showing awareness of and consideration for another person’s face

strategies to avoid social friction

reduces friction in personal interactions

When we are polite, this allows people to maintain their image (to appear as cooperative, etc.). One of the ways to do it is not to raise direct objections, which allows people to save face (i.e. their self image). Thus, when you are being polite you allow people to save face (i.e. your speech acts are not face-threatening).

Examples:

Open the door!
Presumed social power over the collocutor
= threatens the collocutor's face (you are implying you have power over them)
Could you please help me with this exercise?
No social power presumed over the collocutor (just asks for the collocutor's ability - you are not threatening the collocutor's face)

how can politeness be measured

in terms of the degree of effort put into the avoidance of a conflict situation

If you say something that represents a threat to another person’s self-image, that is called —- as opposed to a —-.

a face-threatening act as opposed to a face-saving act

face

a self-image that we construct and maintain as we talk (face)

This is the emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects everyone else to recognize

opposing hypotheses (name and explain)

•(i) a universal system hypothesis - by which turn-taking is a universal system with minimal cultural variability

(ii) a cultural variability hypothesis, by which turn-taking is language and culture dependent.

turn-taking

fundamental aspect of informal conversation, guiding when to speak and when to listen

Focuses on how speakers use cues and timing for smooth turn transitions

influenced by culture and language

cohesion and coherence

the relevance and mutual access to concepts within a text.

text-centred, text-inherent

cohesion -how text is connected in terms of reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion, which connect text

coherence - the mutual access and relevance within a configuration of concepts and relations