LINGUISTICS WORLD
Speech Acts Theory
A speech act is an utterance that
serves a function in communication. Through this simple definition, we can
identify that we use language for many purposes in our daily life. We tell
others what we know, we ask questions, we express our feeling, make a requests,
protest, criticize, insult, apologize, promise, thank, say hello and goodbye
etc.
According to J.L. Austin (1962), we
perform various acts: locutionary acts, illocutionary acts, and perlocutionary
acts. The difference between locutionary and illocutionary acts is sometimes
referred to the differences between saying and doing. As a simple example, if I
utter Leave! I am in the situation of
uttering imperative sentence and the meaning is ask someone to go. In other words, I have an intention when
uttering that word, specifically I am using what is known as a directive to get
someone to do something. In addition, utterances have effects on someone to
whom the sentences are directed. Uttering leave
may have the effect that actually causing people to leave or go away, it
may make them angry etc.
Austin (1962: Lecture l2) also
suggests that it is possible to distinguish a number of broad classes or
families of speech acts, classified according to their illocutionary force. He suggests the following classes:
Verdictives, Excersitives, Commissives, Behavitives, Expositives and etc.
My critical analysis comes in the
uses of some kinds of speech acts. Speech acts are difficult to perform in a second language
because learners may not know the idiomatic expressions or cultural norms in
the second language or they may transfer their first language rules and
conventions into the second language, something that works in English might not
transfer in meaning when translated into the second language. For example, the
following as uttered by a native English speaker could easily be misinterpreted
by, for example, a native Chinese hearer:
Sarah: "I couldn’t agree with you
more.”
Cheng: "Hmmm…." (Thinking:
"She couldn’t agree with me? I thought she liked my idea!").
I also have ever from Mrs.
Meinarni’s presentation that actually we are as L2 learners will be quite
difficult to express our feeling in term of getting angry by uttering directly
just like native people do.
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