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SPEECH ACT Austin (in Mey, 1993: 110-112) said that in conveying utterance, someone is also doing an act. It means that in expressing what they feel, someone not only produce an utterance that has grammatical and word structure, but also they create an act by saying that utterance. This act can be in the form of promising, ordering, apologizing, thanking, and so on. Austin (in Mey, 1993: 110-112) divided the action performed by producing an utterance will consists of three related acts that is produced by the speaker. Those \three related acts are locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act. 1. Locutionary act Locutionary act can be defined as the act of saying something. It means that the utterance we produce is the basic act of utterance, or producing a meaningful linguistics expression. 2. Illocutionary act. Basically, when we produce an utterance, we dont just produce well-formed utterance with no purpose. We form an utterance with some kind of function in our mind. This is that we call illocutionary act. We might utter something to make statement, to request, or to apologize. 3. Perlocutionary act It is an utterance thats produced by the speaker to arouse an effect to the hearer by saying something. So we create an utterance simply not only saying something without intending any effect. We can see this example to explain more about locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act. (1) It is raining outside The locutionary act is the statement that at that time, there was raining outside.
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The illocutionary act from that utterance can be varies, for example the speaker at that time when saying that utterance, he/she denies an invitation, or asks someone to bring an umbrella.

The perlocutionary act from that utterance will be, someone will bring an umbrella or someone will cancel the invitation.

Of these three dimension, the most discussed is illocutionary force. Indeed, the term speech act is generally interpreted to mean the illocutionary force of an utterance. The same locutionary act can count as some different analysis, and it will represent the different illocutionary force. (2) Ill see you later. The illocutionary act from the utterance number (2) can be a prediction, a warning, or a promise. The problem that we face now is that, how can the hearer know which illocutionary act is represented by the utterance above? That question has been addressed by considering two things, those are Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices and felicity condition.

IFIDs IFIDs mean some device to distinguish which illocutionary act which is meant by the speaker. It is used by the hearer. If the illocutionary act is explicitly shown at the utterance, it can be called performative verb. Example: I promise you that.. I warn you.. The utterance above can be very clear to the hearer., because the verb promise and warn are explicitly show the illocutionary force. But sometimes, speakers dont always perform their speech act so explicitly, but they sometimes describe the speech act being performed., like this dialog: A: Can I talk to Marry? B: No, shes not here. A: I am asking you__ can I talk to her? B: And I am telling you___SHES NOT HERE!

In the dialogue above, both of the speaker describe the illocutionary act of their utterance. But if there is no performative mentioned, we can use other IFIDs to identify that utterance. Other IFIDs which can be identified are word order, stress, and intonation, as shown in the different versions of the same basic element below. (3) a. Youre going! (I tell you that you are going) b. Youre going? (I request confirmation about you are going) c. Are you going (I ask you if you are going) Meanwhile, we can use other devices to distinguish the illocutionary act such as lower the intonation, or maybe use the higher tone of our voice, indicating that we are angry.

Felicity Conditions Felicity conditions are certain expected or appropriate circumstances, it means that this condition for the performance of a speech act to be recognized as intended. We can see in this example below: I sentence you to six months in prison The utterance above is appropriate if the speaker has a profession as a judge (when he/she in a court room). If the speaker isnt a judge, then it wont be appropriate. There are some precondition on speech acts in everyday context among ordinary people, they are: 1. General condition on the participants It means that the participant of the conversation can understand the language being used and they are not playing acting, or being nonsensical. 2. Content conditions In order to count as a particular type of speech act, an utterance must contain certain features.

For example: for both a promise and warning, the content of the utterance must be about a future event. A further content condition for a promise requires that the future event will a future act of the speaker. 3. Preparatory conditions Specific requirement prior to an utterance in order for it to count as a particular speech acts. 4. Sincerity condition Requirements on the genuine intention of a speaker in order for an utterance to count as a particular speech act. 5. Essential condition In performing speech act, a requirement that the utterance commits the speaker to the act performed.

Performative Hypothesis Performative Hypothesis is a proposal that underlying every utterance, there is a clause with a verb that identifies the speech act. Explicit performatives: a speech act containing a performative verb. Implicit performatives: a speech act without a performative verb.

Speech Act Clasiification Generally, there are five types of functions performed by speech act 1. Declarations Declarations are those kind of speech acts that change the world via their utterance. a. Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife. b. Referee: you are out! c. Jury Foreman: we find that the defendant guilty. In using declarations, the speaker changes the world via words.
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2. Representatives Representatives are those kinds od speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the case or not. a. The earth is flat b. Agatha Christie didnt write about Evolution. c. The weather is nice today. 3. Expressives Expressives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker feels. They express psychological states and can be statement of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy or sorrow. a. I am really glad to hear that. b. Sorry for that accident. c. Well, its great idea I think. 4. Directives Directives are those kinds of speech acts that speaker use to get someone else to do something. They express what the speaker wants. They can be in the form of commands, order, request, suggestions. a. Please pas me the salt. b. Could you lend me your book? c. Dont turn on the lamp. 5. Commissives Commisives are those kinds of speech acts that the speaker use to commit themselves to some future action. They express what the speaker intend. They can be in the form of promises, threats, refusal, pledges. a. Ill be back as soon as possible. b. I am going to go dinner with her. c. We will not accept that letter.

Direct and Indirect Speech Act When we produce an utterance, there will be two possibilities of the form of the utterance. It can be in the form of direct speech act and indirect speech act. Whenever there is a direct relationship between a structure and a function, we call it as a direct speech act. Whenever there is an indirect relationship between a structure and a function, then we have an indirect speech act. So, if we produce a declarative sentence that is used to make statement, that is a direct speech act. But, if we produce a declarative to make a request, that is an indirect speech act. See this example below. a. Its cold outside. b. It is hot in here. c. The music is too loud. All of the utterance a-c is declarative sentence. When it is used to make a statement, it is functioning as direct speech act. But when it is used to make a command or request, it is functioning as indirect speech act. Different structure can have a same function, like in the example below. The speaker wants the addressee not to stand in front of television. a. Move out the way! b. Do you have to stand in front of the TV? c. Youre standing in front of the TV. d. Youd make a better door than a window. All of the utterance has same function, that is the speaker wants the addressee not to stand in front of the TV. But, only the sentence in (a) is imperative that represent direct speech act, while the others is an indirect speech act. In English, there are some common types of indirect speech act which has the form of interrogative but it is not typically used to ask a question, it means that when we produce the interrogative form, we dont expect only an answer, but we also expect action.
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a. Could you pass the sugar? b. Would you open this for me? c. Do you mind not smoking here? Indirect speech acts are generally associated with greater politeness in English than direct speech act.

References Levinson, S. C. 1994. Pragmatics. London : Cambridge University Press. Mey, Jacob. L. 1993. Pragmatics : An Introduction. Oxford : Blackwell. Yule, George. 1996. Pragmatics. Oxford : Oxford University Press. Searle, John R. 1969. Speech Act. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.