Speech Act Theory - University of Groningenodur.let.rug.nl/~spenader/public_docs/speech_acts_groningen_NOV.pdf · Outline Outline Speech has functions Motivations for Speech Act Theory

Outline

Speech Act TheoryIntroduction to Semantics

November 4, 2004

Guest Lecturer: Jennifer Spenader

http://www.odur.let.rug.nl/spenader/

Guest Lecturer: Jennifer Spenader http://www.odur.let.rug.nl/spenader/

Speech Act Theory



Outline

Outline

Speech has functionsMotivations for Speech Act Theory

Beyond truth

PerformativesConstraints on performatives

Parts of Speech Acts

Indirect speech actsPoliteness is indirect

Face


Speech Act Theory


Speech has functions Beyond truth Performatives Parts of Speech Acts Indirect speech acts Face

How to be a good host in Japan

(1) NanikaSomething

nomidrink

ni narimasubecome

ka?Question marker.

What would you like to drink?

(2) KoohiiCoffee

kaor

koochablack tea

woobject-marker

nomidrink

ni narimasubecome

ka?Question marker.Are you drinking coffee or black tea?


Speech Act Theory



Motivations for Speech Act Theory

Exceptions to the rule

I Speaker’s contribute more information than just “what issaid”

I To account for additional information Grice and othersdeveloped the idea of conversational implicatures

I Gricean Maxims can give a principled account of additionalmeaning

I We now assume that hearers interpret utterances based on theassumption that speakers are following Gricean Maxim’s whenthey form their utterances

I Yet many utterances don’t seem to follow Gricean Maxim’s!I In particular speakers seem to communicate many things in an

indirect way, without obvious additional meaning


Speech Act Theory




Utterances that break maxims

The following utterances break Gricean Maxims

(3) Do you have a watch?

(4) Mag ik jou iets vragen?

(5) Wilt u misschien de deur openlaten?


Speech Act Theory




What is speech act theory

Crystal

A theory where the effect of an utterance is analyzed in relationshipto the speaker and listener’s behavior

I Speech Act Theory can help us analyze utterances that seemto break Gricean maxims

I Speech Act Theory can also help us examine utterances fromthe perspective of their function, rather than their form


Speech Act Theory




Austin: How to do things with words

Sentence types have conventional relationships to certain types ofspeech acts:

I declarative: The class finishes at 6 pm → assertions(statements)

I interrogative: Does this class finish at 6 pm? → questions

I imperatives: Stop teaching immediately! → orders

I optative: I wish this class would be over! → wishes


Speech Act Theory




Austin was a response to earlier views of language

1. that the basic sentence type in language is declarative (i.e. astatement or an assertion)

2. that the principal uses of language is to describe states ofaffairs (by using statements)

3. that the meaning of utterances can be described in terms oftheir truth or falsity

(from Searle : 223)


Speech Act Theory



Austins first observation: Utterances have many functions

(6) We zouden vanavond pizza kunnen eten.

(7) De woonkamer moet gestofzuigd worden.

(8) Sorry!

(9) Wat raar!

(10) Je zal maar de lotto winnen!

(11) Zeker weten!

I These sentences cannot be said to be true or false.


Speech Act Theory


Figure: Norway


Austin’s second observation: Certain sentences withdeclarative form are not used to make statements

(12) Bij deze verklaar ik Noorwegen de oorlog.

I Declarative sentence-type, but it isn’t being used to sayanything about the truth-value of some statement

I Austin called this type of speech act type a performative

I Only certain people have the ability to declare war


Speech Act Theory



Words can do things

I Performatives change the way the world is

I Performatives can’t be true or false, they can only befelicitous or infelicitous, i.e you can’t marry people unless youare a minister, etc.


Speech Act Theory



In what domains are performatives common?

I Church baptizing, confirming, marrying, funerals,pause exorcism

I Universities conferring degrees

I Court sentencing, swearing oaths to tell the truth

I Gambling placing a bet, raising stakes in poker

I Sports cautioning or sending of players, calling strikes, balls,outs (in baseball)

(Modified from Andrew Moore’s Website)


Speech Act Theory



Constraints on performatives

Felicity conditions

I Need a known procedure with conventional effects, withcertain words or certain people having the right

I The particular persons (speakers) and circumstance must beappropriate for the particular procedure...

I the procedure must be executed correctly by all participants

I and completely

(from Saeed : 224)


Speech Act Theory




Right context

Ronald Reagan, 11 August 1984

My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signedlegislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in fiveminutes.

I Fails in terms of felicity conditions

I Does it fail in terms of sincerity conditions?


Speech Act Theory




Explicit and implicit performatives

I Sometimes the use of specific words signals the speech act

I Searle: IFID’s “Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices”

I Words such as declare name hereby

I Hereby test (Bij deze test?)


Speech Act Theory




Performative hypothesis (Gazdar 1979)

I Extended notion of performativesI every time you say something you perform a speech actI even banal sentences are speech acts

(13) I hereby inform you that I have graded your homework.

(14) I graded your homework


Speech Act Theory




Other types of speech acts

I Representatives speaker asserts a proposition to be trueusing verbs such as affirm, believe, conclude, deny, report

I Directives speaker tries to make the hearer do something,ask, beg, challenge, commmand, dare, invite, insist, request

I Commissives speaker commits themselves to a future courseof action, promiss, pledge, swear, vow, guarantee

I Expressives speaker expresses an attitude to or about a stateof affairs apologize, appreciate, congratulate, deplore, detest,regret, thank, welcom


Speech Act Theory



Three parts of a speech act

1. Locutionary act -communicative act

2. Illocutionary act -speakers intention

3. Perlocutionary act -the effect that the speech act has on thecontext participants world


Speech Act Theory



Mona Verwenyoghurt

(15) Tims vriendin: Willen jullie fruit ofverwenyoghurt van Tim?

Meisjes: (allebei) Fruit!Ben je doof of zo? Dat is toch...


Speech Act Theory



Politeness: avoid the wrong perlocutionary effect

(16) NanikaSomething

nomidrink

ni narimasubecome

ka?Question marker.

What would you like to drink?

(17) KoohiiCoffee

kaor

koochablack tea

woobject-marker

nomidrink

ni narimasubecome

ka?Question marker.Are you drinking coffee or black tea?

I The first form has the perlocutionary effect of the guestrefusing a drink

I Cultures may differ as to the perlocutionary effect thatotherwise translation equivalents may have


Speech Act Theory



Politeness is indirect

Indirect speech acts for politeness

I Indirect speech acts have intended meanings that are differentfrom their literal meanings

I Hearers recognize their real meaning based on the context

(18) It’s cold in hereI want you to turn up the heat or close the door.

(19) Would you mind helping me carry some of my stuff?Help me carry some of my stuff.


Speech Act Theory



The concept of face

Brown and Levinson

(face is) the public self image that every member of society wantsto claim for himself (1978:66)

I Positive face individuals desire to be liked, approved of,admired, etc.

I Negative face individuals desire to be independent, avoidhaving others tell them what to do


Speech Act Theory



The concept of face

I Threats to positive face expressions of disapproval,disagreements, accusations, interruptions

I Threats to negative face orders, requests, suggestions,advice

I Self threats to positive face apologies or confessions


Speech Act Theory



Threats

(20) Jan, Kom ’ns.Order, threatens negative face, addressee is not masterof his own actions

(21) Je weet niet waar je het over hebt. Expression of dis-approval, a correction, threatens positive face, individuallooks bad in front of others

I Individuals try to avoid threatening each other’s face in socialinteraction

I this is seen as the root cause of politeness strategies

I orders, request, disapprovals, etc., are all expressed moreindirectly


Speech Act Theory



Face and Politeness Phenomena in Japanese

I Matsumoto claims that Brown and Levinson’s definition isn’table to account for Politeness in Japanese

I The concept of face is oriented to the individual

I Japanese society is more group oriented, and politenessstrategies depend on acknowledging or showing one’s role in agiven group


Speech Act Theory



Matsumoto: interdependence

(22) Doozo yoroshiku onegaishimasuPlease be good askI ask you to please treat me well.

(23) Musume o doozo yoroshiku onegaishimasuDaughter OBJ please be good askPlease treat my daughter well.

(24) Shujin o doozo yoroshiku onegaishimasuHusband OBJ please be good askPlease treat my husband well.

I in Japanese culture interdependence is a positive thingI respectful impositions (demands for help) enhances the image

of the addresseeGuest Lecturer: Jennifer Spenader http://www.odur.let.rug.nl/spenader/

Speech Act Theory



Deference: exalt addressee, humble self

(25) Annoo, tsumaranai mono desu gaThis is nothing much, but please accept it.

(26) Okuchi ni awanai kamoshiremasen ga, ...You probably won’t like it but...

(27) It’s not much, it’s just a little thing I picked up for asong in a bargain basement sale in Macy’s last week, Ithought maybe you could use it.


Speech Act Theory


Operationalizing Speech Act Theory Applications of Speech Act Theory Machine Translation

Part II

Dialogue Coding in NLP


Speech Act Theory



Outline

Operationalizing Speech Act Theory

Applications of Speech Act TheoryHCRC Map TaskVerbmobile

Machine Translation


Speech Act Theory



Speech Act Theory has many practical applications

1. Definition from Searle: Illocutionary Act “thespeakerintention”, i.e. intention think of speech acts asmini-intentions!

2. Performative hypothesisSpeech acts fur Alle!! All utterances are speech acts

3. IFID:er (i.e. Illocutionary (read:intention) Force IndicatingDevice) these are the surface cues as to what speech act isbeing performed


Speech Act Theory



How to make a code

I linguistically motivated

I functioning, reliable, useable!

I test it by tagging a lot of corpora with itI Need to find recognizable patterns

I Find expression internal and external signs of a certain speechact

I Handcoded, or automatically generated (Samuel et al 1996) ora combination


Speech Act Theory



HCRC Map Task

Giver map

Figure: NorwayGuest Lecturer: Jennifer Spenader http://www.odur.let.rug.nl/spenader/

Speech Act Theory



HCRC Map Task

Follower map

Figure: NorwayGuest Lecturer: Jennifer Spenader http://www.odur.let.rug.nl/spenader/

Speech Act Theory



HCRC Map Task

Map Task

(28) G: Where the dead tree is onthe other side of the stream theres farmed land.

F: I have to jump a stream.


Speech Act Theory



HCRC Map Task

Another Map Task Example

(29) F: Im in between the remote village and the pyramid.G: Do you have the west lake,

down to your left?:Query-YesNoF: No.:Reply-NoG: So youre at a point thats probably two or three

inches away from both the top edge, andthe left-hand side edge.Is that correct?: Query-YesNo

F: No, not at the moment.: Reply-No


Speech Act Theory



Verbmobile

Verbmobile project

Alexandersson et al. (1997), Dialogue Phases

I HELLO greetings

I OPENING theme is introduced (determining a date to meet)

I NEGOTIATION discussion of possible dates until one thatworks for both participants is found

I CLOSING task finished, at this point there is often arepetition of what has been decided.

I GOODBYE goodbyes


Speech Act Theory



Machine Translation (1)

I We want to translate intentions, not words

(30) Would Thursday at 4 pm be good for you?

(31) I suggest 4 pm Thursday

(32) 4 pm Thursday would be good for me.

I ALL of them : suggestions for a time to meet

I Schmitz and Quantz:This is our translation goal!


Speech Act Theory




I Same word gets different translations in different speech acts

I This despite the fact that the domain (topic) is limited in e.g.Verbmobile

I recognition of speech acts helps solve some of these problems

(33) A: Danke schon!B: Bitte.

(34) Konnen Sie Bitte leiser sprechen?


Speech Act Theory




(35) Und Fernsehen macht vielliecht doch aggressiv(www.heise.de)And television might make people aggressive.

(36) Konnen Sie veilleicht einen Vorschlage machen.Could you make a suggestion?

(37) Passt Ihnen vielleicht Dienstag oder Mittwoch vormittag?Do Tuesday or Wednesday morning suit you?

I vielleicht should be translated as possibly in most cases, butin a speech act of request or a suggestion it should not betranslated because it doesn’t not contribute modal meaning


Speech Act Theory



Summary

I Actual language use doesn’t always choose the most efficientform (despite what Gricean Pragmatics would predict)

I Social conventions such as politeness play a role in how wechoose to express ourselves

I Speech Act Theory gives us the tools to analyze a wider rangeof functions of language than theories based ontruth-conditional content.

I Speech Act Theory has practical applications in work done ini.e. Machine Translation.


Speech Act Theory


Documents

Speech Act Theory - University of Groningenodur.let.rug.nl/~spenader/public_docs/speech_acts_groningen_NOV.pdf · Outline Outline Speech has functions Motivations for Speech Act Theory