Act of utterance and the utterance, act of utterance - OCW de la ...

05.02. Enunciative analysis of impaired speech samples: speech acts - 94By Michael Stubbs (1987): Análisis deldiscurso (Discourse analysis), Madrid,Alianza, p. 153 ss"The basic idea, developed by J. L. Austin in1955 in his Harvard University classes, isthat words are actions. Certain actions canonly be carried out through language(apologising, for example) and others canbe performed verbally and non-verbally(threaten, for example). Moreover, as soonas we begin to study how language is usedin social interaction, it becomes evident thatcommunication is impossible if the speakerand the listener do not share certainknowledge and assumptions.(...) Austin's original idea was that to stateor describe is only one of language'sfunctions. He argued that statements(constatives, in Austin's terms) do not evenhave a privileged position. Although theyare usually thought to be basic, adults donot generally make unsolicited statementsor describe the world. The basic distinctionbetween constatives and performatives isthat only the former can be true or false.Performatives are used to perform actions,so there is no sense in questioning theirtruthfulness. For example, if A says: Ipromise to come, it makes no sense for B tosay: That isn't true.(...) Austin's original distinction betweenconstative and performative is erroneous,as Austin himself recognised, because thesame statement can be affirmed, negated orasked, be a reminder to someone else, usedas a complaint, etc. That is, the statement isa speech act like any other.(...) From this observation, Austindeveloped his general theory of speech acts.Utterances can carry out three types of act.The locutionary act is the act of sayingsomething, of producing a series of soundsthat have meaning. This is the aspect oflanguage that linguistics has traditionallybeen interested in. The perlocutionary actproduces an effect in listeners. Persuasion isa perlocutionary act: you cannot persuadesomeone of something by simply saying Ipersuade you. Similar examples would beconvince, disturb, frighten and entertain.The effect of language on the audience hastraditionally been the field of rhetoric. Theillocutionary act is carried out whensomething is said, for example: bet,promise, deny and order. Some verbs usedto define illocutionary acts can be usedperformatively. For example, to say I deny Xis to deny it.Linguistic Analysis of Speech/Language DisorderBeatriz Gallardo Paúls. Curso 2008-2009.