Week 6: Pragmatics — Speech Acts and Politeness
Could you get the door for me?
Is the speaker asking about ability, asking for the water, or doing both?
With words, people can:
Speech Act Theory asks what people do in saying something.
You can leave the door open.
The locution is the utterance produced: its words and linguistic form.
You can leave the door open.
The speaker uses a declarative sentence.
The illocution is the communicative act performed in saying the utterance.
In our example, the speaker makes a request.
The request is still a request even if the hearer says no.
The perlocution is an effect the utterance has on a hearer.
An effect is NOT guaranteed by the speaker’s intention.
The instructor says, I’ll upload the grades by next week.
The illocution is a commitment.
Possible effects include reassurance, doubt, or no reaction at all.
An utterance can perform more than one act.
I’m sorry I missed your call. I was in class.
It may apologise and explain. Context and co-text help us decide which act is foregrounded.
10 minutes
Close the window.
Could you close the window?
Which sentence is grammatically a question? Which one is likely a request?
The first utterance has imperative form and can function as a directive.
The second has interrogative form but can also function as a directive.
Grammatical form alone does not identify the speech act.
An act is direct when the sentence form and communicative function correspond straightforwardly.
An act is indirect when the intended illocution is not simply the act suggested by the sentence form.
Could you pass the water?
Its form asks about ability; in many contexts its function is to request the water.
The listener uses context to infer the illocution and also follows the Gricean’s maxims.
Could you lift this box?
What would you need to know to choose among these interpretations?
Some forms are familiar as requests:
Other interpretations depend more on the local context:
A: Let’s go to the movies tonight.
B: I have to study for an exam.
B’s words give information about studying.
In this exchange, they may also function as a refusal of A’s invitation.
The first act is explicit; the second is inferred from the sequence and situation.
For each utterance, write two possible functions and one context clue that would support each:
Use this frame:
“In this context, X may function as Y, because Z.”
Then ask: what alternative interpretation remains possible?
This keeps analysis from becoming a guess about a speaker’s private thoughts.
10 minutes
You need someone to move a bag blocking the aisle.
How might you ask a close friend? A new classmate? An instructor?
Write one version for two different relationships.
Move your bag.
Could you move your bag, please?
Would you mind moving your bag?
What changes? What stays the same?
Politeness frameworks examine how linguistic choices relate to social expectations and relationships.
In the Brown and Levinson framework, face refers to the public self-image participants want to maintain.
A request may ask someone to change what they are doing.
An act that may threaten face is called a face-threatening act (FTA).
When making a request, a speaker can choose to:
These choices do not form a universal scale from rude to polite.
Would you mind moving your bag?
What does the form make explicit? What does it leave open?
The same words can sound different when spoken:
Written examples leave out some evidence available in face-to-face interaction.
Scenario: a student has been ill and needs more time for an assignment.
Compare:
For each version, discuss:
Frameworks help us ask questions; they do not tell us what every person must feel.
Do not assume:
For any utterance, ask:
You left the door open.
Context: it is raining; the speaker is standing beside a wet floor.
Take a moment to answer the five questions.
We can support the interpretation that the utterance may function as a request to close the door.
We cannot know from the words alone that:
Choose Do you have a pen? or It’s noisy in here.
Describe one context where the utterance performs an indirect act. Name the locution, likely illocution, one contextual clue, and one uncertainty.
Complete the statements in your own words:
Advanced English II