Speech Acts & Communicative Strategies

Speech Acts

  • Every communicative move we make can be viewed as a speech act: an utterance defined by the speaker’s intention and the effect it produces on the listener.
    • Speech and language are the prototypical channels, yet gestures, facial expressions, or written signs may execute the same pragmatic force (e.g., nodding as agreement).
    • John L. Austin (philosopher of language) systematized the field in 19621962 and introduced the three-layer model below.

Austin’s Three Types of Speech Act

  • Locutionary Act
    • The literal act of producing sounds, words, or sentences.
    • Concerned with form and propositional content.
    • Example: “Please do the dishes.” ⇒ Words physically uttered.
  • Illocutionary Act
    • The social force or function performed by saying something.
    • Same sentence above = a request directed to the addressee.
    • Core to pragmatics: it is what we mean socially.
  • Perlocutionary Act
    • The resulting act/effect on the hearer in a particular context.
    • Hearer may in fact wash the dishes (compliance) or refuse (non-compliance).
    • Highlights that speaker control ends at intention; uptake depends on context & listener.

Indirect Speech Acts

  • Occur when grammatical form ≠ intended illocutionary force.
    • Example: “Can you pass the rice?”
    • Literal/locutionary reading: ability question.
    • Indirect illocution: polite request → “Please pass the rice.”
  • Useful for politeness, mitigation, or strategic ambiguity.

Performative Utterances & Performatives

  • Performative Utterance: A statement that enacts rather than describes an action (speech act is self-executing).
    • E.g., “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
  • Performatives: Verbs that execute what they name (e.g., promise, apologize, warn, declare).
  • Felicity Conditions (must all hold for success):
    1. Appropriate authority (licensed judge, minister, etc.).
    2. Conventional procedure followed correctly and completely.
    3. Participants must have requisite thoughts, feelings, and intentions.
    4. Subsequent behavior must align (e.g., couple accept marriage).
  • If any condition fails, the performative misfires (null and void).

Searle’s Five Illocutionary Categories

  • John Searle refined Austin and proposed taxonomy; each is an illocutionary act type.

1. Assertive

  • Speaker commits to truth of a proposition.
    • Verbs: state, assert, suggest, boast, swear, conclude.
    • Ex.: “No one makes better pancakes than I do.”
    • Social role: builds shared knowledge, can later be challenged for evidence.

2. Directive

  • Speaker aims to get the addressee to do something.
    • Forms: asking, ordering, requesting, inviting, advising, begging.
    • Ex.: “Please close the door.”
    • Power & politeness interact; indirect forms soften imposition.

3. Commissive

  • Speaker commits themself to a future course of action.
    • Includes promising, vowing, betting, volunteering.
    • Ex.: “From now on, I will participate in our group activity.”
    • Creates social obligations; reputation at stake if violated.

4. Expressive

  • Speaker conveys psychological state or emotion about a situation.
    • Thanking, apologizing, welcoming, lamenting.
    • Ex.: “I’m so sorry for not helping out in our group projects.”
    • Strengthens social bonds, manages face wants.

5. Declaration

  • Utterance changes external status or reality in the moment spoken.
    • Blessing, firing, baptizing, sentencing, excommunicating.
    • Ex.: “You are fired!” (instantly alters employment status).
    • Requires institutional authority (link to performatives).

Communicative Strategy

  • Definition: Any approach or tactic used by interlocutors to start, maintain, redirect, repair, or end conversation effectively.
  • Mastery improves fluency, coherence, and social harmony.

Seven Types of Communicative Strategy

1. Nomination

  • Purpose: collaboratively propose & establish a topic.
  • Typical openers:
    • “Why don’t we talk about …?”
    • “Let’s discuss …, what do you think?”
    • “I’d like to talk about … . How about you?”
  • Significance: Sets conversational agenda; encourages shared ownership.

2. Restriction

  • Imposes boundaries on what or how much to talk about (scope, time, relevance).
  • Phrases:
    • “Let us focus on …”
    • “Please limit your talk to …”
    • “Could we just concentrate on …?”
  • Ensures efficiency, keeps discussion goal-oriented.

3. Turn-Taking

  • Governs orderly exchange of speaking rights.
  • One “turn” = one speaker’s floor time.
  • Seven micro-strategies:
    1. Speak, then ask (yield cue)
    2. Use conjunctions to signal continuation
    3. Teach/know phrases for agreeing & disagreeing
    4. Phrases for asking/giving opinions
    5. Fillers for pauses (uh, well, you know)
    6. Avoid interruptions (respect turns)
    7. Value fluency over grammatical accuracy in flow
  • Cultural variation (e.g., overlap accepted in some communities).

4. Topic Control

  • Manipulating breadth & depth of ongoing topic; balancing participation.
  • Techniques:
    • Selectively answer questions.
    • Introduce sub-topics or shift focus.
    • Manage process and handle small talk.
  • Useful expressions: “Yes, but…”, “The real question is …”, “Let’s not talk about that, instead …”.

5. Topic Shifting

  • Moving from one topic segment to another; may link back or branch out.
  • Common markers: “By the way…”, “Incidentally…”, “Going back to…”.
  • Prevents stagnation, enables multi-thread dialogue.

6. Repair

  • Mechanism for resolving problems in speaking, hearing, or understanding.
  • Four Repair Sequences (Schegloff et al., 19771977):
    1. Self-initiated, self-repair (speaker spots & fixes error: “I went to Par— sorry, Peru last year.”)
    2. Other-initiated, self-repair (listener prompts: “Who?” → speaker clarifies.)
    3. Self-initiated, other-repair (speaker asks for help: “I can’t recall his name—?”)
    4. Other-initiated, other-repair (listener corrects: “You mean Peru, not Paris.”)
  • Repair phrases: “I mean…”, “Rather,…”, “What I meant was…”.

7. Termination

  • Closing the interaction.
  • Usually triggered by the topic initiator or context cues (time, task done).
  • Three move structure:
    1. Pre-closing: “It’s been nice talking to you.”
    2. Follow-up (future contact): “I’ll email you.”, “How can I reach you?”
    3. Closing: “See you next week.”, “Let’s keep in touch.”
  • Skillful termination maintains rapport & sets stage for future encounters.

Connections & Real-World Relevance

  • Understanding speech-act layers helps in:
    • Legal & institutional settings (contracts, verdicts, rites) where declarations/performative success is crucial.
    • Cross-cultural communication: indirectness and politeness strategies differ; misinterpretations stem from mismatching illocutionary force.
    • Education & therapy: teaching turn-taking or repair fosters inclusive discourse.
    • Artificial intelligence and chatbots: mapping intents (illocutionary acts) to correct system responses.
  • Ethical Dimension: Misusing declarations (e.g., unlawful firing) or false commissives (broken promises) erodes trust and can cause harm.

Quick Reference Cheat Sheet

  • 33 speech-act layers = locution (what is said) → illocution (what is meant) → perlocution (what happens).
  • 55 Searle classes = Assertive, Directive, Commissive, Expressive, Declaration.
  • 77 communicative strategies = Nomination, Restriction, Turn-taking, Topic Control, Topic Shifting, Repair, Termination.
  • Key test for performatives = felicity conditions (authority, procedure, sincerity, uptake).