The Definitions of Illocutionary Act

a Priest : I now pronounce you husband and wife. b Referee : You’re out Yule, 1996: 53 The first example can constitute a declaration of marriage if the utterance is spoken by an appropriate authority, such as a Catholic priest. On the other hand, the same sentence, if it is spoken by an eight year old kid, cannot constitute a felicitous declarative act. The second example can also be regarded as a declaration if the utterance is spoken by a referee. It is spoken to declare that a player of the match is out of the game. Searle and Vanderveken 1985: 205 indicate that declarative forces can be present in many forms such as declaring, approving, endorsing, excommunicating, naming, christening, resigning, firing, abbreviating, and blessing. The language features that indicate declarative acts are verbs such as declare, approve, endorse, excommunicate, name, christen, resign, fire, abbreviate, and bless. 2 Representative Representative act represents some state of affairs. According to Yule 1996: 53, representative act is the type of speech act that states what the speaker believes to be the case or not. They express the speaker’s belief. Statement of fact, assertion, conclusions, and description are some examples of the speaker representing the world as he or she believes it. For examples: a The earth is flat. b It was a warm sunny day. Yule, 1996: 53 The examples above are the representations of the speaker’s beliefs to be the case in the world. The speaker in the first example expresses his or her belief by asserting that the earth is flat. On the other hand, the speaker in the second example expresses his or her belief that the day was a warm sunny day by uttering the assertive illocutionary act. Assertive forces can be present in many forms, such as informing, stating, arguing, clarifying, convincing, agreeing, describing, protesting, reminding, and reporting. The language features that indicate representative acts are verbs such as assert, claim, argue, assure, predict, report, inform, admit, remind, testify, confess, conjecture, guess, state, hypothesize, swear, and insist. 3 Expressive Yule 1996: 53 states that expressive act is a kind of speech act that states what the speaker feels. They express psychological states and can be statement of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy or sorrow. Expressive act refers to a speech act in which the speaker expresses his or her feeling and attitude about something. They can be caused by something the speaker does or the hearer does, but they are about the speaker’s experience. The examples of expressive act are shown below. a I’m really sorry b Congratulations Yule, 1996: 53 Searle in Wardaugh 2006: 287 states that expressive act is used to express the sincerity conditions of the speech act. The utterance “I’m really sorry” and