TYPES OF SPEECH CONTEXT

1. Intrapersonal- It refers to the communication with one’s self.

Example: You spent the night thinking and analyzing why a student from the other class talked
to you on the way home and you decided it probably meant nothing.

2. Interpersonal- This refers to communication between and among people and establishes
personal relationship between and among them.

Example:

You offered feedback on the speech performance of your classmate.

You provided comfort to a friend who was feeling down.

3. Public- This type refers to communication that requires you to deliver or send the message
before or in front of a group.

Example:

You deliver a graduation speech to your batch.

You participate in a declaration, oratorical, or debate contest watched by a number of people.

4. Mass communication- This refers to communication that takes place through television,
radio, newspapers, magazines, books, internet, and other types of media.

Example:

You are a student journalist articulating you stand on current issues through the school’s
newspaper.

TYPES OF SPEECH STYLES

1. FROZEN STYLE

Used generally in very formal setting.

Most formal communicative style for respectful situation
Does not require any feedback from the audience
Usually uses long sentences with good grammar and vocabulary
The use of language is fixed and relatively static

Examples:

national pledge, anthem, school creeds,

marriage ceremonies, speech for a state ceremony

2. FORMAL STYLE

Used in speaking to medium to large groups

May also be used in single hearers- strangers, older persons, professional
Speaker must frame whole sentences ahead before they are delivered
Avoids using slang terminologies
language is comparatively rigid and has a set, agreed upon vocabulary that is well
documented; is often of a standard variety.

Examples:

meetings, speeches, school lessons, court, a corporate meeting, at a swearing in ceremony, in

an interview or in a classroom

3. CONSULTATIVE STYLE

Used in semi-formal communication

Happens in two-way participation
Most operational among other styles
Speaker does not usually plan what he wants to say
Sentences end to be shorter and spontaneous

Examples:

regular conversation at schools, companies, group discussion,

teacher-student, doctor-patient, expert-apprentice

4. CASUAL STYLE

Language used between friends

Often very relaxed and focused on just getting the information out
Slangs are quite often used in these instances
This style is used in informal situations and language
Relationship between speaker and hearer is closed.

Examples:

casual conversations with friends, family members, chats, phone calls and messages

5. INTIMATE STYLE

Completely private language used within family of very close friends or group
Uses personal language codes
Grammar is unnecessary
Does not need complete language
Certain terms of endearment, slangs or expressions whose meaning is shared with a small
subset of persons to person

SPEECH ACTS

Concept proposed by John Langshaw Austin in 1962 one of the founders of pragmatic and
later developed by John R. Searle in 1969, both philosophers of language.

Speech acts refer to the moments in which statements occur in the communicative act within
a given context.

Speech Acts are group of utterances with a single interactional function.

Theory of Speech Acts
A speech act has 3 aspects:

1. locution = physical utterance by the speaker

2. illocution = the intended meaning of the utterance by the speaker (performative)
3. perlocution = the action that results from the locution.

Levels of action Locutionary act: is the basic act of utterance, or producing a meaningful
linguistic expressions. Performing an act of saying something. Depending on the
circumstances, do any one of several different things, so we can use a sentence with a given
locutionary content in a variety of ways. Austin defines it “as belonging to a certain
vocabulary…and as conforming to a certain grammar,…with a certain more or less definite
sense and reference”

Ilocutionary act: are the real actions which are performed by the utterance. We form an
utterance with some kind of function in mind. This communicative force of an utterance is
known as illocutionary force. Performing an act in saying something Levels of Action

Types of ilocutionary Acts Constatives: affirming, announcing, answering, confirming

“We find the defendant guilty”

Directives: advising, asking, forbidding, ordering, permitting

Commissives: agreeing, inviting, offering, promising, I promise to call you tonight”

Acknowledgments: apologizing, congratulating, thanking.

Perlocutionary act: are the effects of the utterance on the listener. Reveals the effect the
speaker wants to exercise over the hearer. This is also known as the perlocutionary effect
performing an act by saying something Would you close the door, please?

Example A bartender utters the words, “The bar will be closed in five minutes, “ The
locutionary act of saying that the bar will be closed in five minutes , where what is said is
reported by indirect quotation. The illocutionary act in saying this, the bartender is informing
the patrons of the bar’s imminent closing and perhaps also the act of urging them to order a
last drink. The bartender intends to be performing the perlocutionary acts of causing the
patrons to believe that the bar is about to close and of getting them to order one last drink.