Speech Act in Pronunciation
Definition of Speech Act
Speech act to refer to an utterance and the total situation in which
the utterance is issued. Today the term speech act is used to mean the same
illocutionary act, in fact you’ll find
the terms speech act illocutionary act, illocutionary force, pragmatic force
of just force, all used to mean the same thing although the use of one rather
than another may imply different theoretical positions. Austin in Jenny Thomas
(1995:51)
Speech act is a technical term
in linguistics and the
philosophy of language. Speech
acts can be analysed on three levels: illocutionary act, the performance of an
utterance: the actual utterance and its ostensible meaning, comprising
phonetic, phatic and rhetic acts corresponding to the verbal, syntactic and
semantic aspects of any meaningful utterance; an illocutionary act: the semantic
'illocutionary force' of the utterance, thus its real, intended meaning ; and
in certain cases a further perlocutionary act: its actual effect, such as persuading,
convincing, scaring, enlightening, inspiring, or otherwise getting someone to
do or realize something, whether intended or not (Austin, 1975:3)
Kinds of Speech Act
According to Austin in Fasold (1990: 152) there are three different
kinds of action associated with any utterances. They are locutionary acts,
illocutionary acts, and perlocutionary acts.
a) Locutionary Acts
They are
simple acts of saying something and meaning the thing speaker says or the acts
of saying something in the full normal sense of saying. Or the actual words
uttered.
b) Illocutionary acts
They are
what are done in the acts of saying something. Illocutionary acts have to do
with intents of speakers, such as or stating, questioning, promising, or
commanding.
c) Perlocutionary acts
They are
the effects that are produced by the speaker by saying what the speaker says.
Sometimes when we say something, we produce certain consequential effects upon
the feelings, through, or action of the hearer, or of the speaker or of other
person
