CATEGORIES OF THE SPEECH ACT CLASSIFICATION EVIDENCED IN AN

EPISODE OF THE SOAP OPERA ​MOSES AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Luisa Fernanda Londoño Marulanda - Ana Maria Montañez Aguirre

Semantics and Pragmatics Course
Licenciatura en Bilingüismo con Énfasis en Inglés
Faculty of Fine Arts and Humanities
2017

1. Introduction

The author Yule, G. (1996) in his ​Pragmatics b​ ook explored throughout chapter six
the concepts speech acts and events. The term speech acts was defined as actions performed
via utterances and the term events as the circumstances surrounding the utterances in order to
recognize the intention of both speakers. As matter of fact, in the semantics and pragmatics
field of study there is a general classification for speech acts, sometimes called illocutionary
acts. Searle (1975) presented a model for speech acts classification whereby he categorizes
the basic things individuals do with language with frequency. Five general functions are
performed by speech acts according to this classification system: declarations,
representatives, expressives, directives and commissives.

This study presents the categories of the speech acts classification that characterize
the oral conversation depicted in the soap opera ​Moses and the ten commandments between
Ramesses the Pharaoh of Egypt, Yunet the mother of the queen and others characters. The
aim of this paper is to identify and to analyze how Searle’s classification of illocutionary acts
can be evidenced throughout the development of the above-mentioned communicative
exchange.

What is expected from the data analysis is to find the constant use of expressions that
belong to five types of general functions performed by speech acts. This expectation is based
on the context whereby the conversation took place and the role of the participants that were
involved on it.

​2. Procedure and Theoretical Reference

2.1 Procedure

The conversation object of analysis for this study was taken from the episode one
hundred fifty one of the Brazilian soap opera ​Moses and the ten commandments​. The first
step that was implemented as a preparation for the subsequent analysis of the communicative
act was to comprehend the background information of the TV series. Yunet, who is the
mother of the queen Nefertari has committed several murders and treasons during her stay in
the palace. One day, Paser, who is the father of Nefertari and ex-husband of Yunet, reveals to
his daughter that he heard Yunet talking with her lover about all the crimes she had done.
Nefertari, scared about all she just heard about his mother decides to tell her husband
Ramesses about all her crimes. Once he talked with Nefertari and realized that Yunet even
killed his father the Pharaoh Seti I, he asked his guardians to take her to the throne room
where the conversation object of analysis begins.

After having understood the background information, the analysis of the conversation
itself was performed. In general terms, the dialogue took place in the throne room, where
Ramesses ​accompanied by his wife sentenced Yunet to the death penalty without the right of
having a trial, due to the multiple crimes she has committed. It is worth mentioning that the
utterances and actions performed by the protagonists were full of feeling. On one side,
Ramesses ​was resentful for not having known about Yunet’s atrocities before. Yunet on her
part, was surprised and fearful of being found guilty. Succeeding this step there was the
compilation of the data presented in the conversation. During this procedure, the utterances
were recorded, compiled and transcribed in detail. Among general specifications there were
body gestures and actions. The data was classified according the categories of speech acts
being declarations highlighted in blue, representatives highlighted in green, expressives
highlighted in pink, directives highlighted in yellow and finally commissives highlighted in
purple.

The decision of selecting a fragment from one of the episodes of the soap opera
Moses and the ten commandments ​as the corpus for this analysis paper was based on the fact
that the context and circumstances surrounding the conversation foster the performance of
utterances containing the five categories of the speech classification.

2.2 Theoretical Reference

Illocutionary acts are categorized into five different functions of speech acts. These
categories include declarations, representatives, expressives, directives and commissives, and
they mainly determine the intention of the speaker.

2.2.1 Declarations: ​According to Yule (1996) declarations are those kinds of speech
acts that change the world via their utterances. Worth mentioning is the fact that in order to
perform a declaration the speaker has to have a special institutional role in a specific context
for the successful performance of the speech act.

2.2.2 Representatives: ​In using a representative the speaker expresses his beliefs and
convictions. Asserting, stating, concluding, and describing are examples of this category.

2.2.3 Expressives: ​Are those kinds of speech acts that express the psychological state
of the speaker. For instance, thanking, apologizing, welcoming and congratulating are
examples of illocutionary acts demonstrating speaker’s feelings.

2.2.4 Directives: According to Searle (1975) directives are used by a speaker who
attempts to get the addressee to carry out an action. Commanding, requesting suggesting, and
ordering are statements that illustrate this concept.
 2.2.5 Commissives: Are those kinds of speech acts that commit a speaker to some
future action. Promises, threats, refusals, and pledges are examples of utterances whereby the
speaker express what he intends.

3. Analysis and Results

3.1 ​Classification​: In order to analyze and categorize the content of the corpus, a
classification chart was designed. Within this chart, the specific expressions demonstrating
the use of the categories of speech acts are identified in the conversational contributions
column, in accordance with the participants. In the second column, the precise type of speech
act is referred to, and finally in the third column which is named rationale the theory
supporting the choice of speech act is presented.

​CONVERSATIONAL ​SPEECH ACT RATIONALE

CONTRIBUTIONS CATEGORY

-​Yunet​: Me mandó a llamar Representatives The speaker utters

señor? statements of fact showing
-Ramesses​: ​Yunet, debo what he believes to be the
acusarte del ​asesinato de
case.
Seti, rey de Egipto, mi
padre, del asesinato de
Maiya y de haber provocado
la de Henutmire, de alta
traición y de conspiración
contra la vida de Horus vivo
reinante​.

-Ramesses​: ​Por esos y todos Declarations The speaker has a special

los crímenes que cometiste institutional role, in this
te condeno a muerte, sin case being the pharaoh of
derecho a juicio​. Egypt. Situation that enables
him to condemn anyone to
death.

-Yunet:​¿Condenada a Representatives The speaker makes an

muerte? pero soberano, yo assertion of her right to have
tengo derecho a un juicio. a trial.
-Ramesses​: ​Eres culpable Representatives The speaker makes a
del peor crimen que se pronouncement whereby he
puede cometer y para el cual represents Yunet as he
no existe perdón! believes she is.

-Ramesses: Además ​te Representatives In this utterance, the speaker

burlaste de Horus vivo expresses factual
cuando volviste al palacio y information in accordance
atentaste contra la vida de with the crimes Yunet
mi hermana. Tu castigo committed, and assertions
estará a la altura de las regarding the punishment in
atrocidades que cometiste. agreement with his own
beliefs as a pharaoh.

-Ramesses: ​Ordeno que Declarations The authority of being the

seas quemada viva y luego king of Egypt qualifies
con el cuerpo destruido ni Ramesses to select the type
siquiera te acepten en el of punishment that the
mundo de los muertos. condemned woman will
receive.

-​Yunet: ​Noooo! no, no se lo Expressives By uttering this expression,

ruego. the speaker demonstrates
being scared by begging
redemption.

-​Yunet: ​Nefertari, ¡hija por Directives Yunet attempted to request

favor! her daughter Nefertari to
intercede for her.

-Ramesses: ​Guardias, Directives The pharaoh makes a

llévensela de aqu​í. command with the aim of
getting his guardians to take
Yunet out of the room.

-​Yunet:​ ​¡Por favor! Directives The speaker tries to request

the pharaoh redemption.

-​Yunet: ​Yo tengo derecho a Representatives Once again, the speaker

un juicio. makes an assertion of her
right to have a trial.
 -​Ramesses: ​Perdóname mi Expressives The head of Egypt
amor​, pero así debía ser. Ramesses express to his
wife his psychological state
of being sorrowful for what
just happened.

-​Ramesses: ​Te voy a dejar a Commissives The speaker commits

solas con tu padre. himself to leave the throne
room for Nefertari to have
time to talk with her father.

-​Ramesses: ​Fue un día muy Representative Through these words the

complicado. Debo descansar speaker attempts to
communicate his perception
about how the day was and
his desire to rest.

-​Paser: No se preocupe Commissives The father of Queen

soberano​ yo la cuidaré. Nefertari commits himself
to take care of her daughter

-Nefertari: ​Yo sé que hizo Representatives Nefertari makes an assertion

cosas terribles. of the way in which her
mother acted during her stay
in the palace.

-Nefertari: ​Pero no quería Expressives The speaker shows her

que mi mamá muriera. feeling of disagreement
concerning the sentence
issued by her husband.

3.2 Frequency chart: ​In the following graph can be evidenced the frequence in
which different speech acts occurred during the development of the conversation taken as
corpus:

Speech Act Declarations Representatives Expressives Directives Commissives

Frequence 2 7 3 3 2
​4. Conclusions

To begin with, it is important to mention that the initial hypothesis was accurate and
truthful. This, is due to the fact that the circumstances through which the conversation
selected as corpus took place, the participants and the issue at hand facilitated the constant
performance of a variety of speech acts. It is noticeable how the classification of speech acts
and the definitions proposed by the author Yule (1996) are applicable to a communicative
exchange. Concerning Declarations, they are mostly performed by speakers who have a
special institutional role as has been shown in the utterances of the Pharaoh Ramesses.
Representatives, which had the highest score of frequency during the conversation, were
predominantly used because they constitute one of the basic things people do with utterances
that expressing their own beliefs and assertions. In addition, we were disconcerted about the
low rate of usage of expressives since the situation appealed to a wide variety of feelings in
most of the participants, who barely produced utterances concerning this category of speech
acts. Moreover, it was expected from the pharaoh and the Queen the use of directives on
account of their authority, but the use of the same category by Yunet in his position of culprit
was unpredicted. Finally, the implementation of commissives during utterances had the
lowest frequency rate because of the context, which was not the most appropriate in terms of
the plot for the utilization of this type of speech act.
 5 . References

Yules, G. (1996). Pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press.

​ rasil: RecordTV.
Larqueza, B. (2015). ​Moses and the Ten Commandments. B

Searle, J. (1977). A Classification of Illocutionary Acts. In Rogers, A., Wall, B. and Murphy,
J. (Eds.), ​Proceedings of the Texas Conference on Performatives, Presuppositions and
Implicatures.​ Washington D.C: Centre for Applied Linguistics.