Exercises 1

1) State which of following represents an utterance (U) and which a

sentence (S):
John sang wonderfully last night S/U

‘John sang wonderfully last night’ S/U

2) Can a sentence be true or false? Yes/No

3) Is an utterance tied to a particular time and place? Yes/No
4) Is a sentence tied to a particular time and place? Yes/No
5) Can a proposition be said to be in any particular language? Yes/No
6) Can an utterance be true or false Yes/No

Exercise 2 Answer the following questions

(1) If Fred and Jack both greet each other one morning with ‘How are you
today?’ have the both made the same utterance? Yes/No
(2) How many different sentences are involved when Jack and Fred greet
each other as above? …….
(3) Is it conceivable to give the exact time, date, and place of an utterance?
Yes/No.
(4) Is a sentence an event? Yes/No
(5) Can it be said in the case of the English sentence The man hit the bust of
Stalin with a hammer, used out of context as an example, which particular
person in the world is the referent of the man? Yes/No
(6) In making the utterance ‘Elvis is great’, would a speaker normally be
carrying out an act of referring, i.e. referring to some particular person?
Yes/No
Exercise 3

1 /4
 Quite contrary to the popular belief that actions and words are entirely
distinct, many actions can actually be performed with words. Now we will
look at some actions, usually, but not always, involving human objects,
that can be performed either by physical means, such as a gesture, or by
making an appropriate utterance.
(1) Can you congratulate someone by a pat or the back, or a hug? Yes/No
(2) Can you congratulate someone by uttering ‘Well done’? Yes/No
(3) Can you bid at an auction by nodding? Yes/No
(4) Can you bid at an auction by saying ‘Eleven pounds’? Yes/No
(5) Can you promise someone something by a nod? Yes/No
(6) Can you promise someone something with an utterance beginning ‘I
promise’…’? yes/no
Exercise 4 Which of the following verbs are performatives?
Bet (consider both meanings)
Pray (in the religious sense)
Admire
Interrogate
Deplore
Regret
celebrate
Exercise 5: Are the following performative verbs, or not?
(1) apologize Yes/No
(2) authorize Yes/No
(3) argue Yes/No
(4) condemn Yes/No
(5) squeal Yes/No

2 /4
Exercise 6: In this brief exchange, what name would you give to the speech act
in A? In B? Does D represent a direct speech act or an indirect one? What about
A?

A. Anna: Who finished the bread I made yesterday?

B. Juan: With the raisins?
C. Anna: Yeah
D. Juan: Did you ask Raul?

Exercise 7 Each of the following conversational fragments is to some degree

odd. To what extent can the oddness be explained by reference to Grice’s
Cooperative Principle and/or Leech’s Politeness Principle?

(a) A: Have you seen Peter today?

B: Well, if I didn’t deny seeing him I wouldn’t be telling a lie.
(b) A: Are you there?
B: No, I’m here.
(c) A: What did you do yesterday?
B: I had a swim, changed into my swimming trunks, and went to the
beach.
(d) A: Thank you for your help, you’ve been most kind.
B: Yes, I have
(e) A: Can you tell me where Mr Smith’s office is?
B: Yes, not here.
(f) A: We’re off to Mallorca tomorrow.
B: I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind enjoying your holiday.
(g) A: Would you like some coffee?
B: Mary’s a beautiful dancer.
(h) A: Would you like some more dessert, or coffee, perhaps?
B: I’d like to go to the lavatory.
3 /4
(i) A: Thank you for a wonderful evening. The meal was delicious.
B: No, it wasn’t.
A: Yes, really, we enjoyed it enormously.
B: It was disgusting, and I was pathetic.
(j) A: Has the postman been?
B: He leant his bicycle against the fence, opened the gate, strode briskly
down the path, stopped to stroke the cat, reached into his bag, pulled out a
bundle of letters, and pushed them through our letter box.

4 /4