Types of Speech Acts

Contents:

01 Locutionary Act (LA)

02 Illocutionary Act (IA)

03 Perlocutionary Act (PA)

Content Standards:

The learners respond

appropriately and effectively to
a speech act.
What are utterances?
Defining
Speech Acts
Speech Acts
Utterances that have a specific communicative
function are referred to as speech acts. It is
important to note that while by definition,
utterances broadly refer to simply any sound
produced orally, utterances in speech acts
are sounds that have meaning and are produced to
have an effect.
 Speech acts are distinct from physical
acts such as eating your classmate’s lunch.
It is further different from mental acts like
thinking or contemplating eating your
classmate’s lunch.
Speech acts, on the other hand, is
exemplified in asking to eat your
classmate’s lunch, promising to eat your
classmate’s lunch, ordering someone to eat
your classmate’s lunch, or threatening to
eat your classmate’s lunch.
 Hence, speech acts are
performed when one
apologizes, complains, asks,
greets, requests, invites,
Speech compliments, or refuses.

Acts
 The Three
Types of
Speech Acts
1. Locutionary Act (LA)
According to Nuccetelli and Seay (2007), a
locutionary act is “the mere act of producing some
linguistic sound with a certain meaning and
reference.” Simply put, we can remember this as
the literal or the grammatical structure of the
uttered statement.
1. Locutionary Act (LA)
Examples:

• Declarative: Teacher to student: “You are about to fail in my subject.”

The teacher is informing the student that he/she is about to fail in the subject.

• Interrogative: Mother to son: “What time is it already?”

The mother is asking her son for the time.

• Imperative: Librarian to students: “Observe silence.”

The librarian is telling the students to be silent.
But should we take all
utterances literally?
2. Illocutionary Act (IA)
The illocutionary act of an utterance is its
intention or function. This is what the speaker
intends to achieve by making the utterance.
Furthermore, while a locutionary act, or an
utterance’s grammatical structure and literal
meaning do not change, an illocutionary act
depends on its context as well as how the
utterance is said.
2. Illocutionary Act (IA)
Examples:

• Mother to son: “What time is it already?”

If the interrogative sentence is uttered while a mother and her son are in a long queue,
the illocutionary act is that the mother is asking her son what time it is. Therefore, the locutionary
act is similar to the illocutionary act.

• Mother to son: “What time is it already?”

If the statement is uttered in a different context, say her son is not yet home past the
curfew, the same interrogative sentence could have a different illocutionary act. In this case, the
question would appear to function as an imperative one - the mother is telling her son to go
home immediately. Here, the locutionary act of the statement is not the same as the illocutionary
act.
3. Perlocutionary Act (PA)
A perlocutionary act of an utterance is its product or
effect on the receiver. However, this consequence could either
be the intended one or not as the speaker of the utterance
cannot control its effect on the receiver. The perlocutionary act
then depends on the way the receiver understood the
speaker’s utterance.
3. Perlocutionary Act (PA)
Taking the earlier example of the question of a mother to
her son, “What time is it already?” the son could respond by
telling the exact time. In another situation, this utterance could
also be understood as an order. Accordingly, the son could
respond by apologizing and telling his mother that he will be
home soon.
 TYPES OF SPEECH ACTS

Purpose LA (literal statement) IA (intention) PA (product/result)

• The son could respond
by telling the exact
• The mother is asking
time.
her son what time it is.
Mother to son: “What time
Asks a question is it already?” • The son could respond
• The mother is telling
by apologizing and
her son to go home
telling his mother that
immediately.
he will be home soon.

Expressing Customer to waiter: “This

complaint food tastes awful!”

Inviting Neil to Aries: “Come on,

someone let’s play basketball.”

Giving Greg to Sally: “You are so

compliments beautiful!”
Categories of
Speech Acts
Are you the type of person who
is straightforward or do you
beat around the bush?
 A speech act is direct when the utterance’s form and function
are parallel. That is, the syntactic structure is the same as the
intention. This is done when the speaker’s intention (illocutionary act)
is made explicit (directly stated) in the utterance (locutionary act).
Examples:
• Girl to boy: “I don’t like you.”
The declarative utterance is used to make a statement.

• Teacher to student: “Is anyone absent today?”

The interrogative sentence is used to ask a question.

• Librarian to students: “Observe silence.”

The imperative utterance is used to deliver a command.

Direct Speech Act

 As opposed to direct speech acts, an indirect
speech act’s form does not correspond to its function.
Speakers could come up with other ways to deliver the
same meaning while using various sentence types. There
is no direct connection between what is actually uttered
and the intention of the speaker behind the utterance.

Indirect Speech Act

 The use of interrogative utterances where the purpose is not really to ask a
question is common in the English language. Such is exemplified in the examples below.

Examples:

• Teacher to students: “Can’t you read?”

Though the structure is interrogative, the intention of the teacher is not really to
ask about the literacy of the students. Rather, the teacher is telling the students to read
more carefully.

• Student to another student: “Do you have a sheet of paper?”

Requests can also be cast indirectly as a question such as in the above
example. While the student may be asking whether the receiver has a sheet of paper,
this could be understood as a request for one.

Indirect Speech Act

 Indirect speech acts are not confined however to questions
posed as requests or orders. Imperative sentences can also be
indirect speech acts.

Example:

• Friend to another friend: “Slap me.”

This sentence appears to be imperative in that the friend is
ordering the other to slap him or her. On the contrary, it could be
understood as declarative as it expresses wonder or amazement over
something.

Indirect Speech Act

The Diversity of Utterances
 Questions?
Clarifications?