Speech Acts and Werlich's Text Typology

Introduction to Speech Acts and Text Types

• Session Information: English Text Linguistics, Session $7$, conducted by Prof. Dr. Christoph Schubert (anb007.2).

• Core Components of Speech Acts:

  • Locutionary Act: The literal utterance produced by the speaker, containing reference and predication.

  • Illocutionary Act: The speaker's underlying intention or the force behind the utterance (e.g., making a request, a promise, or an apology).

  • Perlocutionary Act: The actual effect or impact the utterance has on the hearer.

Types of Illocutionary Force (Searle 1976)

John Searle's typology classifies speech acts into five distinct categories based on their illocutionary point:

• Representatives:

  • Definition: The point is to commit the speaker, in varying degrees, to the truth of the expressed proposition or to something being the case.

  • Example: "The sky is blue."

  • Typical Genres: News, reports, diagnoses, and documentaries.

• Directives:

  • Definition: These are attempts by the speaker, in varying degrees, to get the hearer to perform a specific action.

  • Example: "Can you tell me the time, please?"

  • Typical Genres: Prayers, advertisements, political speeches, applications, user manuals, laws, and cooking recipes.

• Commissives:

  • Definition: The point is to commit the speaker, in varying degrees, to a future course of action.

  • Example: "I’ll be with you in the afternoon."

  • Typical Genres: Oaths, warranties, and contracts.

• Expressives:

  • Definition: The point is to express a psychological state regarding a state of affairs specified in the propositional content.

  • Example: "I am sorry for your loss."

  • Typical Genres: Letters of congratulation, books of condolence, picture postcards, and love letters.

• Declarations:

  • Definition: The successful performance of a declaration brings about an immediate correspondence between the propositional content and reality (changing the world through words).

  • Example: "I hereby pronounce you husband and wife."

  • Typical Genres: Last wills, certificates of appointment, verdicts, powers of attorney, wedding ceremonies, baptisms, and declarations of war.

Text Typology and Egon Werlich’s Framework

• Definition of Text Type: An abstract, idealized form of text structuring.

• Werlich’s Five Text Types:

  1. Description

  2. Narration

  3. Exposition

  4. Instruction

  5. Argumentation

• Distinction Between Text Types and Genres:

  • Genres (Text Forms): Concrete examples like stories, recipes, essays, reviews, advertisements, or prayers.

  • Relationship: Abstract text types are manifested within these text forms. Genres are usually mixtures of multiple text types.

1. Description: Cognitive Process of Perception in Space

• Definition: Focuses on the cognitive process of perceiving objects and entities in spatial relations.

• Linguistic Features:

  • Verbs: Use of "be" or non-change verbs (e.g., stand, lie, sit).

  • Tenses: Present or past tense.

  • Adverbials: Adverbials of place (e.g., "in the corner").

  • Sentence Structures: Existential sentences (e.g., "There is/are…").

  • Sequence Forms: Spatial sequence forms (e.g., "there," "at the door," "on the wall").

• Advanced Features:

  • Relative and participle clauses (e.g., "stretching over…").

  • Spatial clauses (e.g., "where…") and comparative clauses (e.g., "more extensive than…").

  • Heavy use of adjectives (e.g., "huge," "tiny").

  • Postmodification by prepositional phrases (e.g., "the plate on the table").

• Text Forms:

  • Impressionistic Description: Landscapes or people in novels, short stories, and advertising.

  • Technical Description: Geographic texts and tourist guidebooks.

2. Narration: Cognitive Process of Perception in Time

• Definition: Focuses on the cognitive process of perceiving events in temporal relations.

• Linguistic Features:

  • Verbs: Verbs of change (e.g., move, go, grow).

  • Tense: Past tense.

  • Adverbials: Adverbials of time and place (e.g., "to the beach," "after an hour").

  • Sequence Forms: Temporal sequence forms (e.g., "then," "afterwards," "in the evening").

• Advanced Features:

  • Temporal clauses (e.g., "when," "after," "since…").

  • Participle clauses (e.g., "entering the traffic lane…").

  • Adverbial modification of verb phrases (e.g., "ran quickly," "touched gently").

• Text Forms:

  • Subjective Point of View: Short stories, novels, anecdotes, and fairy tales.

  • Objective Point of View: Reports, biographies, and history books.

Labov’s Personal Experience Narrative Model (1972)

William Labov proposed a six-part structure for narratives involving serious danger or personal experience:

1. Abstract: What was it about?

2. Orientation: Who, when, what, where?

3. Complicating Action: Then what happened?

4. Evaluation: So what? (The point of the story).

5. Resolution: What finally happened?

6. Coda: Is there a connection to the present?

Example Narrative: The Isle of Skye

$(1)$ The Isle of Skye was home to Flora MacDonald, who became famous for helping Bonnie Prince Charlie escape his defeat at the Battle of Culloden. $(2)$ Flora was born in $1722$ at Milton in South Uist, where a memorial cairn marks the site of one of her early childhood homes. $(3)$ After her mother’s abduction by Hugh MacDonald of Skye, Flora was reared by her brother and educated in the home of the Clanranald chiefs. $(4)$ In $1746$, she helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape from Benbecula to Skye disguised as her Irish servant. $(5)$ With a price on the Prince’s head, their little boat was fired on, but they managed to land safely and Flora escorted the prince to Portree where he gave her a gold locket containing his portrait before setting sail for Raasay. $(6)$ Waylaid on the way home, the boatmen admitted everything. $(7)$ Flora was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. $(8)$ She never saw or heard from the prince again.

3. Exposition: Cognitive Process of Comprehension

• Definition: Focuses on the mental process of explaining and understanding concepts.

• Types:

  • Synthetic Exposition (Definitions): Uses verbs like "be," "refer to," "be called" in the present tense.

  • Analytic Exposition (Naming Parts): Uses verbs like "have," "consist of," "contain" in the present tense.

• Sequence Forms:

  • Explicatory sequence forms: "namely," "for example," "thus."

  • Additive sequence forms: "moreover," "also," "equally," "too."

• Advanced Features:

  • Restrictive relative clauses.

  • Causal clauses (e.g., "because," "since").

  • Adjective premodification (e.g., "an important feature").

  • Prepositional postmodification (e.g., "one part of the brain").

• Text Forms:

  • Analytic: Expository essays, definitions, explications, encyclopedias.

  • Synthetic: Summaries, summarizing minutes.

4. Instruction: Cognitive Process of Planning

• Definition: Focuses on the cognitive process of planning future behavior.

• Linguistic Features:

  • Mood: Imperative (e.g., "Stop!", "Be reasonable!").

  • Sequence Forms: Enumerative sequence forms (e.g., cardinal and ordinal numbers, "first," "to begin with," "next," "finally").

• Advanced Features:

  • Conditional clauses (e.g., "if").

  • Purpose clauses (e.g., "in order to").

  • Modal verbs (e.g., "should," "must," "ought to").

  • Manner adverbs (e.g., "thoroughly," "consecutively").

• Text Forms:

  • Subjective: Personal orders or commands.

  • Objective: Directions, rules, regulations, and statutes.

5. Argumentation: Cognitive Process of Judging

• Definition: Focuses on the cognitive process of judging in response to a problem or proposition.

• Linguistic Features:

  • Verbs: "be," typically in the present tense.

  • Negation: Use of "not" or "no."

  • Complements: Adjectives as complements (e.g., "it is advisable to…").

  • Sequence Forms: Contrastive sequence forms (e.g., "but," "however," "yet," "in any case," "conversely," "by contrast," "still").

• Advanced Features:

  • Concessive clauses ("although"), conditional clauses ("if"), and causal clauses ("because").

  • Nominal that-/whether-clauses (following verbs like "think," "believe," "feel").

  • It-sentences with evaluative adjectives (e.g., "it is obvious/clear/better…").

  • Modal auxiliaries (e.g., "should," "must," "ought to").

  • Viewpoint adverbs (e.g., "obviously," "clearly").

  • Focusing adverbs (e.g., "merely," "only," "precisely").

• Text Forms:

  • Subjective: Comments (newspaper), election campaign speeches, lawyer’s pleas.

  • Objective: Scientific argumentation.

Activities and Answer Keys

Activity 1: Fan Heater User Manual

Extract: $(1)$ Check that the Power Switch is in off-position. $(2)$ Plug the Supply Cord into the outlet. $(3)$ Do not touch the Supply Cord with wet hands. $(4)$ Check that the Air Inlet and Outlet are not covered. $(5)$ The Air Inlet and Outlet must not be covered during operation. $(6)$ To operate the fan heater… follow the below instructions. $(7)$ Before removing… turn the Power Switch to the cool air setting and let it operate for $10$ seconds… $(8)$ Then turn the Power Switch to the off-position and unplug the fan heater.

• Predominant Text Type: Instruction.

• Identifying Features:

  • Imperatives: Found in sentences $(1), (2), (3), (4), (6), (7),$ and $(8)$.

  • Enumerative sequence forms: Cardinal numbers at paragraphs.

  • Coordination/Adverbs: Use of "and" $(7)$ and temporal adverb "then" $(8)$.

  • Purpose clause: "To operate…" $(6)$.

  • Adverbial of manner: "with wet hands" $(3)$.

  • Modal verb: "must" $(5)$.

Activity 2: Northumberland Text

Extract: $(1)$ Northumberland… is one of the largest, emptiest and wildest of England's counties. $(2)$ There are probably more castles here than anywhere else… $(3)$ The castles all have fascinating histories… $(4)$ In the south of the country are older remains… plus Hadrian's Wall…

• Predominant Text Type: Description.

• Identifying Features:

  • Spatial sequence forms: "north of the River Humber" $(1)$, "here" $(2)$, "anywhere else" $(2)$, and "back and forth" $(3)$.

  • Prepositional phrase: "In the south" $(4)$.

  • Place names: "Northumbria," "Northumberland," "England’s," "Hadrian’s Wall," and "Britain’s."

  • Verbs: "is" $(1)$, "are" $(2, 4)$, "have" $(3)$.

  • Existential sentence: "There are […]" $(2)$.

  • Descriptive adjectives: "largest," "emptiest," "wildest," "vivid," "long," "bloody," "older," "ancient."

  • Postmodifications: "of England’s counties" $(1)$, "of long and bloody struggles" $(2)$, "of even earlier battles" $(4)$.

Activity 3: Time Magazine Letter to the Editor

Extract: $(1)$ I presume that you chose Bush more for his negative achievements… $(2)$ In fact, I can’t think of anything positive… $(3)$ No one likes to think… but if voters supported Bush… then Americans got what they deserve. $(4)$ TIME should have selected the American people as Fools of the Year. $(5)$ Pity the rest of the world. $(6)$ But we don’t count, do we?

• Predominant Text Type: Argumentation.

• Identifying Features:

  • Contrastive sequence forms: "in fact" $(2)$, "but" $(3, 6)$.

  • Conditional clauses: "if that" $(2)$, "if voters" $(3)$.

  • Modal verbs: "can" $(2)$, "should" $(4)$.

  • Negation: "can’t" $(2)$, "no one" $(3)$, "don’t" $(6)$.

  • Tag question: "do we?" $(6)$.

  • Verbs of thinking: "I presume" $(1)$, "I can’t think" $(2)$.