Classification of Speech Act

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2. Classification of Speech Act

J.R. Searle in Levinson 1985: 38 proposed five basic kinds of actions one can perform in speaking, by means of five types of utterances, namely; Representatives, Directives, Commisives, Expressives and Declarations. Below are the explanations of each type of utterance including its sample taken from the data in the movie “Maid in Manhattan”. a. Assertives Assertives are utterances used by the speaker to express the belief that the proportional content is true. The proportional content refers to a sentence contains asserting, complaining, suggesting etc. Example: Keef : “Hows the weather?” Marissa : “Sunshine. Thats nice.” In the conversation above, Keef asked for the weather, and Marissa described or informed about the condition that the weather was sunshine. It is an assertive utterance to express that the proportional content is true. b. Directives Directives are utterances proposed to influence the hearer to act something or not. Those utterances are commanding, ordering, requesting, inviting, etc. Example: Marissa: “Come on, help me clean the Park Suite. Youre not doing nothing.” to Stephanie 14 This is a request uttered by Marissa to ask Stephanie’s help for cleaning the Park Suite. In this case, Marissa’s utterance will construct Stephanie to help her for cleaning the Park Suite. c. Commisives Commisives are utterances used to express the speaker’s intention concerning some future actions. Those acts are promising, threatening, refusing, etc. They can be performed by the speaker alone, or by the speaker as a member of a group. Example: Chris: “I’ll come back.” to Jerry The utterance above is the expression of promising something because the speaker’s intention concerns to the future action that he would come back. d. Expressives Expressives are utterances used to express the speaker’s psychological attitudes positively or negatively. Thanking and apologizing are kinds of positive attitudes, while accusing and dislike are kinds of negative attitudes. Example: Marissa: “You know, I am really sorry about all this.” to Ty This is an apologizing utterance used by the speaker to express her regretful of something happened in one situation. It shows the positive psychological attitude of the speaker. e. Declarations Declarations are kinds of speech acts in which the speaker alters the external status or condition of an object or situation. Searle said that they are 15 very special categories of speech acts. The speaker of those acts is someone who is especially authorized by an extra-linguistic institution which provides rules for their use, such us a court, committee, church, and so on. Example: Priest: “Now I pronounce you husband and wife.” The utterance above is a kind of declaration uttered by a Priest to marry a couple to be husband and wife.

C. Implicature