Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
by Don L. F. Nilsen
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CONDITIONS ON PERFORMATIVES
Subject must be 1st person. Verb must be active. Verb must be non-durative. Adverb must be hereby. Sentence must be positive, not negative. Sentence must be Imperative or Declarative. Verb must perform the act. Must meet felicity conditions (authority, etc.) Must meet sincerity conditions (not a joke, etc.) Can be larger than a sentence (e.g. The Declaration of Independence) (Mey 107ff)
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I promise Ill be there tomorrow. This could be a threat or a promise, depending on whether his presence tomorrow is a disadvantage or an advantage to the listener. Contrast the sentence above with: If you dont behave, I promise you theres going to be trouble. This sentence says its a promise, but its a threat. (Searle Speech Acts 58)
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When he was campaigning, Clinton said he would not turn away any Haitian refugees. When he became President, Clinton turned away Haitian refugees. Clinton said that the conditions had changed. Based on this, Daniel Schorr on National Public Radio said, Campaigning is not the same as governing, because the conditions are not the same. (Mey 127)
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FELICITY CONDITIONS
Authority
Person Place Time Manner
Sincerity
Verbal Sincerity Intonational Sincerity Behavioral Sincerity
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Do you know what time it is? Do you have the correct time? Can you tell me how to get to the mens room? Do you see the salt anywhere?
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I strongly suggest you shut your mouth. Sometimes its a good idea to shut up.
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(Mey 213)
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Searle is a lumper. He has only five classes of Speech Acts: Representatives, Directives, Commissives, Expressives and Declarations. (Searle 1979)
We could lump all of these into a single class: Performatives.
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MOTHER (Calling out the window to child in yard): Joshua, what are you doing?
JOSHUA: Nothing MOTHER: WILL YOU STOP IT IMMEDIATELY!
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What I like best is doing nothing. Its when people call out at you just as youre going off to do it. What are you going to do, Christopher Robin? and you say, Oh, nothing, and then you go and do it. (Milne, The House on Pooh Corner Chapter 10)
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STUDENT: I was going to talk to you about my term paper, if its all right. PROFESSOR: SILENCE STUDENT: When do you think youll have it marked then? PROFESSOR: Miriam, I hope you brought the book. MIRIAM: SILENCE PROFESSOR: Okay, but please remember it next time. (Blum-Kulka 176)
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Performatives (Affect world) TYPES: Agreement, Appointment, Baptism, Declaration of Independence, Dedication, Marriage
Representatives (Objective Descriptive Statements) TYPES: Statement that is either True or False
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UPTAKE
Some speech acts like betting and thanking need an uptake from the listener. Consider the following:
BAR-LEV: Sir, I want to thank you for your cooperation and I want to thank you very much.
IDI AMIN: You know I did not succeed.
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!BAR-LEV: I have been requested by a friend with good connections in the government to thank you for your cooperation. I dont know what was meant by it, but I think you do know.
IDI AMIN: I dont know because Ive only now returned hurriedly from Mauritius
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Idi Amin heard that this was planned and left for Mauritius
Therefore if Idi Amin accepts the thanks, it means he agrees with the paratrooper drop. Since he was not in the country, he cant be held responsible. (Mey 282-283)
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!!!CONCLUSION
The chief beadle In Dutch universities knows when doctoral defenses begin. After the defense has been in progress for 45 minutes, he ceremoniously enters the defense stamps his staff on the floor, and proclaims in Latin Hora est. (Time is up!). (Verschueren 93)
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References # 1: Austin, J. L. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1962. Blum-Kulka, Shoshana, Juliane House and Gabriele Kasper eds. Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1989. Eschholz, Paul, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark. Language Awareness. Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. Mey, Jacob L., ed. Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics. Oxford, England: Elsevier Science/Pergamon, 1998. Mey, Jacob L. Pragmatics: An Introduction, 2nd Edition. Oxford, England, 2001.
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References # 2
Mey, Jacob L. When Voices Clash: A Study in Literary Pragmatics. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter, 1999.
Mey, Jacob L. Whose Language? A Study in Linguistic Pragmatics. Philadelphia, PA: Benjamins, 1985.
Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000. Raskin, Victor. The Primer of Humor Research. New York, NY: Mouton de Gruyter, 2008. Schiffrin, Deborah. Approaches to Discourse. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994, pp. 49-96.
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References # 3 Searle, John R. A Classification of Illocutionary Acts. In Proceedings of the Texas Conference on Performatives, Presuppositions, and Implicatures. Eds. Andy Rogers, Bob Wall and John P. Murphy, Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1977, 27-45.
Searle, John R. The Classification of Illocutionary Acts. Language in Society 8 (1979): 137-151.
Searle, John R. "Indirect Speech Acts." Syntax and Semantics III: Speech Acts. New York, NY: Academic Press, 1975, 59-82. Searle, John R. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1969. Verschueren, Jef. Understanding Pragmatics. London, England: Arnold, 1999.
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