Pragmatics L2.2009.Austin Searle

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Isabela Iecu-Fairclough PRAGMATICS 2 SPEECH ACTS

From: Isabela Iecu-Fairclough Pragmatics Workbook(book in preparation, Editura Universitiidin Bucureti)

Poirot to Captain Hastings: Hastings, my friend, promise me something.Hastings: Whats that, Poirot?Poirot: Never, but never must Chief Inspector Japp hear that I investigated such a case.Hastings: Mums the word, old boy.

Speech acts are verbal actions, actions performed by means of utterances. In uttering a speech act,I do something with my words: I make an apology or a promise, I request an interlocutor to tellme the time or to open a window, I congratulate or greet a friend, and if I am authorized to doso I can even baptize child, declare a meeting open, pronounce two people husband and wife.Speech act theory originated in the 1950s, in a series of lectures which the British philosopher J.

L. Austin gave at Oxford University between 1952 and 1954, and later on at Harvard in 1955,collected posthumously as How to Do Things with Words (1962). Austins ideas were taken upand developed later on by the American philosopher J. R. Searle in several books, most notably inhis famous Speech Acts. An Essay in the Philosophy of Language (1969).

Austin originally drew attention to a class of verbs which he called performatives anddistinguished them from so-called constatives. In uttering a constative, we aim to describe theworld (The weather is nice. Pluto is a planet). Constative speech acts involve the utterance ofstatements that can be true or false, depending on how the proposition expressed corresponds orfails to correspond to an objectively existing state of affairs in the world (e.g., Pluto is no longerconsidered a planet, so the utterance would be false now). To utter a performative speech act (Inow pronounce you husband and wife, uttered by an authorized person in appropriatecircumstances) is not to report or describe some pre-existing state of affairs, but to do something,or perform an action, i.e., instate a new reality. In other words, instead of reporting or describingsome pre-exiting fact or event, such utterances name the act that they perform and perform it atthe same time. When two people are pronounced husband and wife during a marriage ceremony, anew reality, that of the marriage, has come into being. It follows that performative utterancescannot be evaluated as true or false because there is no pre-existing state of affairs that they can becompared with. There are many examples of utterances that are not descriptions of events:

I promise that I will be there.I (hereby) agree that I was wrong.I apologize.I warn you that plagiarism will not be tolerated.

I bet you a pound that it will rain tomorrow.I name this ship The Queen Elizabeth.You are fired.We find the defendant guilty.

Instead of truth-conditions, Austin speaks of felicity conditions, i.e. conditions that the extra-linguistic context, the participants and the utterance must satisfy if a successful (felicitous)speech act is to be performed. Highly conventional acts (such as those involved in ceremonies of

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marriage, baptizing, etc.) require for instance that the persons involved have the authority toperform the acts, that the circumstances (e.g. place) be appropriate, etc. Even ordinary speech actslike promising, apologizing and warning, which everyone can perform and which do not requireany special authority or institutional circumstances, have felicity conditions: for a promise to benon-defective, the speaker must intend to carry out the act, etc. It is essential to note that it is

possible to do things with words without using performative verbs (e.g. No trespassing!Bastard!, etc.).What are the conditions that have to be fulfilled for a performative utterance such as I now

pronounce you husband and wife to be felicitous? Austin lists the following:

A (i) There must be a conventional procedure having a conventional effect.(ii) The persons and the circumstances must be appropriate, as specified in the procedure.

B. The procedure must be executed both correctly and completely: the words must be the rightone and the whole procedure must be carried out.C. Often, (i) the persons must have the requisite thoughts, feelings and intentions, and (ii) ifconsequent conduct is specified, then the relevant parties must do so.

Indeed, in most societies, there is such a conventional procedure called marriage and it hascertain conventional effects. For a marriage to happen, there has to be a minimal number of peoplepresent, such as a priest or registrar, the two future spouses, witnesses, etc., and the proceduremust be carried out in a certain place. Only saying I will or I do will be acceptable in Englishspeaking countries, and not Yes, or I will not; the married couple must sign their names in aregister, etc. If these conditions are not met, we might say that the procedure has misfired. Onecan, nevertheless, be married against ones will, or even when ones thoughts and intentions areinsincere, if one goes through the procedure correctly and completely. We might, however, say insuch cases that the procedure has been abused and, according to one view, at least, marriagesunder duress are not legally binding. What is essential to note is the fundamental importance of

collectively recognized conventions and institutional factors for such performative acts to takeeffect. Performativity (of the sort discussed in this example, at least) seems to be a matter of whatthe words mean and the powers accorded to people by virtue of certain social institutions. Or, inother words, words can do things when they felicitously invoke a convention (Petrey 19xx).

Already, however, by the end of the lectures which make up How to Do Things withWords, Austin began to challenge his original distinction between constatives (as truth-bearers)and performatives (as action-performers). For one this, it would seem that the distinction betweentruth-conditions and felicity-conditions is not as hard-and-fast as it originally seemed to b. Is theinsincerity of a promise really so different from the insincerity of an assertion? For a performativeto be effective, isnt in necessary for certain things to be true? And can the truth or falsehood ofstatement always be evaluated in clear-cut terms? Dont we often make statements that are

roughly speaking true, but strictly speaking false, but which are nevertheless appropriately(felicitously) used in those contexts in which a certain degree of approximation does not matter?More significantly still, even constatives (The cat is on the mat) produce something: an assertion,a statement. The cat is on the mat is therefore more or less equivalent to I state/ assert/ suggest/hypothesize/ admit that the cat is on the mat, and we can say that these utterances are neither truenor false but perform the act of asserting, suggesting, admitting or hypothesizing that the cat is onthe mat. If the example seems unconvincing, think of the way in which truly new realities areinstated by scientific assertions (constatives, according to the above distinctions) about blackholes, quarks, strings, neutrinos, bosons, etc. Do such scientific statements describe reality?

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perform an act of promising amounts to (tacitly) drawing on the following rules (for anypromissory IFID of the type promise, abbreviated asPr):

Propositional content rule: Pr is to be uttered only in the context of a sentence whichpredicates some future act A of the speaker S.

Preparatory conditions: (a)Pris to be uttered only if the hearer H would prefer Ss doing Ato his not doing A, and S believes H would prefer Ss doing A to his not doing A. (b) Pr isto be uttered only if it is not obvious to both S and H that S will do A in the normal courseof events.Sincerity rule:Pris to be uttered only if S intends to do A.Essential rule: The utterance ofPr counts as the undertaking of an obligation to do A.(Searle 1969: 63)

Rules of this type (to be further illustrated later) only do justice to the most prototypical examplesof the speech act types in question. For instance, a promise is still a promise even if the Hearerdoes not in fact prefer that the Speaker should perform the act and the Speaker may be unaware ofthis. Sometimes, promise is used in place of other verbs: I promise to fail you if you cheat, a

threat and not a promise, in spite of the wording.Searle has also put forward a classification of speech acts into five classes: representatives,

directives, commissives, expressives and declarations. Each is correlated with a particularpsychological (intentional) state (specified in the acts sincerity condition) and a particulardirection of fit between language and the world. Each has a particular illocutionary point orfunction (expressed in the essential condition).

Representatives (assertives) (illustrated by assertions, hypotheses, descriptions,conclusions, etc.) are those speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the case or not.The point of an assertion is to commit the Speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition.(There are various degree of commitment, from a mere guess or suggestion to certain knowledge).The direction of fit is words to world (i.e. the speaker is trying to make his words correspond to,

or represent the world). The expressed psychological state is belief. Examples of characteristicverbs: affirm, assert, claim, declare, report, predict, describe, suggest, guess, assume, suppose,advise, announce, agree, reject, etc.

Directives (e.g. orders, requests, commands, suggestions, advice, questions, seen asrequests for information) are those speech acts that speakers use in order to make someone elsedo something (this is their point or function). In using a directive, a speaker attempts to make theworld fit the words, via the hearer. In terms of psychological state, they express what the speakerwants (his desires, wishes). Questions are a sub-class of directives, as requests for information.Examples of characteristic verbs: ask, implore, order, command, request, forbid, prohibit, grant,consent warn, advise, caution, recommend, inquire, interrogate, etc.

Commissives (e.g. promises, threats) are those speech acts whereby speakers commit

themselves to a future course of action (this is their illocutionary point). They express thespeakers intentions, and they attempt to make the world fit the words (change the world inaccordance with what the speaker has promised). Examples of characteristic verbs: promise,swear, vow, pledge, offer, volunteer.

Expressives (Congratulations! Im sorry!) are those speech acts whose point is to statewhat the speaker feels (actually, they express the psychological state specified in the sinceritycondition). They express various psychological states (pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes) and have nodirection of fit with the external world but only between words and the speakers internal states(the words should fit the speakers inner world). Examples of characteristic verbs: apologize,

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thank, congratulate, greet, regret, etc. Expressives (or acknowledgments) often involvestereotypical formulas: Good morning, Sorry, Happy birthday, Damn, Ouch, Hurray, Thank you,Best wishes, Youre welcome, etc. in which the propositional content is not overly expressed.

Finally, declarations are those speech acts that create new state of affairs, or change theword, in being uttered. They include many of Austins original performative class, i.e. utterances

likeI pronounce you husband and wife, I name this ship The Queen Mary, I sentence you to lifeimprisonment, I declare war, Youre fired, etc., when uttered in the right circumstances by theright persons. Unlike the other four types of speech acts, declarations rely heavily on extra-linguistic conventions and have no sincerity condition (no expressed psychological state). Thedirection of fit is both words to world and world to words: the successful performance of the actguarantees that the propositional content corresponds to the new state of affairs that is created bymeans of the words.

There are direct speech acts and indirect speech acts. In the latter case, e.g., Can you tellme the time?), an indirect request (the intended, primary illocutionary force of the utterance in thiscase) is performed by means of a direct question. Clearly, for most hearers, the act is not aquestion but a request for information. It would surprise and annoy the speaker if he were toreceive Yes, No or Perhaps as an answer without any further information. In fact, people

seem to be most competent when it comes to understanding or making use of indirectness inlanguage. How does that come to pass? How are hearers able to understand the indirect (nonliterl)act on the basis of the direct (literal) one? More about indirect speech acts will be said in the nextchapter.

EXERCISES

1. Define and illustrate the concepts of performative vs. constative utterance, as

originally distinguished by Austin.

2. Define felicity conditions. What are the felicity conditions for the following utterancesto function?

1 I pronounce you man and wife.2 I sentence you to life-imprisonment.3 I name this ship Aurora.

3. Comment on the following passage:Once I have uttered the words I apologize no one candeny that I did apologize (even though you may suspect that my apology is insincere). But what ifI sneak up on the cruise ship The Queen Elizabeth IIat the dead of night as it lies in dry dock and,

in a fit of republican passion, smash a bottle of Guinness against the hull and rename it TheAlbatross? Must it be henceforward be known to everyone as The Albatross? (Thomas 195:33)

4.Cross-cultural differences in the use of performatives. The following events were said tooccur in Pakistan. Could they have occurred in the UK or Romania? Why?A terrible tangle has arisen in Pakistan over a local soap opera. Soap star Usman Pirzada divorcedhis television wife in traditional Muslim style, pronouncing Talaq I divorce thee three times.The trouble was that his TV spouse was played by his real wife Samina. Now the ulemas aresaying that the divorce is binding, even though the formula was spoken in the interests of art.

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Their decree maintains that the Prophet ordained that in three matters (marriage, divorce and thefreeing of slaves) words uttered unintentionally or even in jest cannot be withdrawn. Divorcedthey are and divorced they must remain. (Thomas 1995:43)

5. Comment on the following text (from Monty Python and the Holy Grail) in terms of the

concepts of implicit/ explicit performative and felicity conditions:King Arthur (Graham Chapman) is travelling across Britain looking for brave knights who mightjoin him in his court at Camelot. Instead he meets two old women (Michael Palin and Terry Jones,dressed up as women) who turn out to be anarcho-syndicalist peasants:

[Peasants are excited about some nice mud they are digging up]Arthur: Be quiet![Peasants continue talking]Arthur: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!Peasant: Order eh? Who does he think he is?Arthur: I am your King.Peasant: Well, I didnt vote for you.

Arthur: You dont vote for kings.Peasant: Well how did you become King then?Arthur: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite held aloft Excaliburfrom the bosom of the water, signifying that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. That is why I amyour king.Peasant: Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system ofgovernment. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from somefarcical aquatic ceremony.

6. Show that the following sentences can be used both as performative and constative

utterances in different contexts or with the verb indicating different temporal values:1 The jury have found the defendant not guilty.2 I promise to come.3 I declare the session open.

7. Define the following concepts: locutionary act (LA), illocutionary act (IA), perlocutionaryact (PA). What illocutionary act may be performed in uttering the following sentences?(1) Would you like a cup of coffee? (2) After you (said to someone wishing to go through thesame door as the speaker). (3) Im awfully sorry I wasnt at the meeting this morning. (4) Youcan play outside for half an hour. (5) Good evening. (6) I think the weather is going to

improve. (7) I am very grateful for everything you have done for me. (8) I dont take sugar inmy coffee, thank you.(9) Why dont you try looking in Woolworths? (10) Do you think Im anidiot?

8. What perlocutionary acts may be performed by uttering the following sentences? (1) To afriend: There is a spider on your collar. (2) Neighbour to recently bereaved widow: I was sosorry to hear about your loss. (3) Lecturer to student: Youll find the book on clitics in Romancelanguage quite fascinating. (4) Policeman to man carrying a brick: Good evening, Sir. Do youlive around here? (5) I think you are rather stupid. (6) There, there, everything is going to be

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just fine. (7) Fire! (8) Sorry to interrupt.../Excuse me.../Err... (9) To a friend: I like yourhair. (10) Lock the door well tonight, there are all sorts of dubious individuals lurking around.

9. Do the following sentences report illocutions or perlocutions? Which words reportillocutionary acts and which words report perlocutionary acts? Translate these sentences

into Romanian.I asked him to go there. I coaxed him into going there. By objecting to her criticism, Abel amusedMabel. Abel suggested to Mabel that she leave and thereby offended her. By promising to help herI managed to relieve her worries. She was flattered and charmed by his words, especially when hetold her she didnt look a day over 25. He suggested that we should give up trying, which left usin a state of bewilderment and confusion. The conclusions were very frustrating. They can bebrainwashed into believing anything. Some people were disheartened at the news, others wereinspired with courage. What is past help should be past grief, she said soothingly. Were sickand tired of all this browbeating and bullying, they said. Instead of convincing them, all youvemanaged to do is annoy them and turn them against us. We frightened the geese away. Someonecried for help. His words boosted the mens morale. ? By saying I promise to do it, I was tryingto reassure/ comfort/ encourage her. He reproached her bitterly and this only annoyed her/ amused

her/ irritated her/ upset her/ demoralized her. I was astonished/ stunned/ staggered/ dumbstruck/scared by/at his suggestion. His flattering remarks seduced/ coaxed/ cajoled/ enticed/ tempted/manipulated/ charmed/ bullied her into doing something she would have never done otherwise.

10. Identify and discuss illocutionary force indicators (IFIDs) in the examples below:Oh, come off it! Stop this ridiculous nonsense at once! You are hereby requested to leave thepremises at once. Thank you so much for your help. Hes at home. Hes at home? Im afraid youmust give up smoking. You cannot smoke here, Im afraid, smoking in pubs is no longer permittedin England. You really should get down to work. I am pleased to hereby offer you the job. I regretto inform you that the job is no longer available. I must ask you to leave. I can promise you thatno stone will be left unturned. Apparently, the butler did it. Obviously, the butler did it.

Undoubtedly, these rumours are not true. Possibly, these rumours are not true. The traffic is veryheavy, I warn you. Its going to be all right, I promise.

TEXTS FOR ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION(An analysis of the following text and possibly one or two similar ones, accompanied by atheoretical discussion of speech acts, could be turned into a very nice BA dissertation!!)

1. Discuss the speech act type involved in the following text. First, look at the mainillocutionary force indicators (IFIDs). Then, try to determine whether the speech acts

involved are related to advice, commands, instructions, recommendations, etc. and decidehow you would classify them in terms of Searles taxonomy of speech acts. Finally, try towrite up a set of rules (felicity conditions) for the main type of speech act involved.

From: Umberto Eco (1992) How to Organize a Public Library, inHow to Travel with a Salmon& other essays.

1. The various catalogues must be housed as far apart as possible from one another. All care mustbe taken to separate the catalogue of books from that or periodicals, and these two from the

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catalogue by subject; similarly, the recent acquisitions must be kept well away from oldercollections ()

3. Call numbers should be impossible to decipher and, if possible, very complex, so that anyonefilling out a call slip will never have room to include the last line of numbers and will assume they

are irrelevant. Then the desk attendant will hand the slip back to him with the admonition to fill itout properly.

4. The time between request and delivery must be as long as possible.

5. Only one book should be released at a time. ()

7. Insofar as possible, no photocopier should be available; if such a machine does exist, access to itmust be made very time-consuming and toilsome, fees should be higher than those in theneighborhood copy shop, and the maximum number of copied pages permitted should not exceedtwo or three.

8. The librarian must consider the reader an enemy, a waster of time (otherwise he or she wouldbe at work), and a potential thief. ()

11. Interlibrary loans must be impossible or, at best, must require months. The ideal course, in anyevent, is to ensure the impossibility of discovering the contents of other libraries. ()

13. Opening hours must coincide precisely with local office hours, determined by foresighteddiscussions with trade union officials and the Chamber of Commerce; total closing on Saturday,Sunday, evenings and mealtimes goes without saying. The librarys worst enemy is the employedstudent; its best friend is Thomas Jefferson, someone who has a large personal library (to which hemay nevertheless bequeath his books at his death).

14. It must be impossible to find any refreshment inside the library, under any circumstances; and itmust also be impossible to leave the library to seek sustenance elsewhere without first returning allbooks in use, so that, after having a cup of coffee, the student must fill out request for them again.

15. It must be impossible on a given day to find the book one had been using the day before. ()

18. Ideally, the reader should be unable to enter the library. If he does actually enter, exploitingwith tedious insistence a right, granted on the basis of the principles of 1789, that has neverthelessnot been assimilated by the collective sensibility, he must never ever with the exception of rapidvisits to the reference shelves be allowed access to the sanctum of the stacks.

CONFIDENTIAL NOTE: All staff must be affected by physical defects, as it is the duty of apublic institution to offer job opportunities to handicapped citizens (the Fire Department isconsidering an extension of this rule to their ranks). In particular, the ideal librarian shouldlimp, in order to lengthen the time devoted to receiving the call slip, descending into thebasement and returning. For personnel expected to use ladders to reach shelves more thaneight meters above the ground, it is required that missing arms be replaced by prosthetichooks, for security reasons. Personnel lacking both upper limbs will deliver the requested

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volume by gripping it in their teeth (library regulations tend to prevent the delivery of volumesin a format larger than octavo).

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Documents

Pragmatics L2.2009.Austin Searle