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2. Speech Acts
John Searle, one of the Austin’s students, developed and extended Austin’s ideas by assuming that all utterances, not just those containing performative verbs,
constitutes acts 1987a: 54. Furthermore, Searle states that every speech act consists of three separate acts, namely an act of saying something, an act of doing
something, and an act of affecting someone 1987b: 59. Further, in order to investigate these three different components, Searle adopted the following
terminologies from Austin:
a. Locutionary, Illocutionary, Perlocutionary acts 1 Locutionary Act
This act contains a description of what the speaker says about something. The speaker will simply utter his or her sentence from a language. Therefore, this act
contains a description of what the speaker says, or could be perceived as the literal meaning of the utterance. For example, if a pupil says to a teacher or sends a note,
“It is hot in here,” the locutionary meaning would concern the warm temperature of the classroom which means it is indeed really hot in here.
2 Illocutionary Act
This act contains of the speaker’s intention to do something, by uttering sentence. In other words, this act is the social function of what is said.
Illocutionary acts consist of act of stating, promising, apologizing, threatening, predicting, ordering, complaining, refusing, and act of requesting. For example,
“Its hot in here”. The illocutionary meaning or function of that expression may be an indirect request for someone to open the window or turn down the heat.
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3 Perlocutionary Act
This is the effect on the hearer of what the speaker says. Since this act concerns on the hearer’s point of view, perlocutionary act would include such
effects as persuading, embarrassing, intimidating, boring, imitating, or inspiring the hearer Searle, 1987. For example, if your boyfriend says to you ten times in
five minutes, “Hurry up, Honey, we’re going to be late for the party” then, illocutionary meaning of this utterance is maybe one of urging. However, it can
also be observed that the utterance above has a perlocutionary, that is, the act of irritating because the utterance is expressed emphatically, or repeatedly.
b. Classification of Illocutionary Speech Acts
Searle has set up the following classification of illocutionary speech acts:
1 Assertives
Speech acts that commit a speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition, e.g. reciting a creed.
2 Directives
Speech acts that cause the hearer to take a particular action, e.g. requests, commands, and advice.
3 Commissives
Speech acts that commit a speaker to some future action, e.g. promises and oaths.
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4 Expressives
Speech acts that express the speakers attitudes and emotions towards the proposition, e.g. congratulations, excuses, and thanks.
5 Declarations
Speech acts that change the reality in accord with the proposition of the declaration, e.g. baptisms, pronouncing someone guilty or pronouncing
someone husband and wife. Referring to the discussion on pragmatics, speech acts and their component
acts cannot be separated from the term of context. They have tight relationship. They influence each other. Meaning to say, they are extremely sensitive to the
context of speaking, particularly to the relationship between the speaker and the hearer. For example, “You’d better do your homework”. It should be noted that the
context of speaking would be able to influence the illocutionary act and perlocutionary act of the utterance. For instance , if a father utters that sentence to
his school-age son, then illocutionary act might be one of ordering, and the perlocutionary act might be one of irritating if that sentence is uttered for many
times. Both of those acts will change depend on the context of speaking.
3. Sociolinguistics
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