SEARLE’S SPEECH ACT

THEORY
BY: MATEO, JOY NICOLE B.
SPEECH ACT
• Is a subfield of pragmatics that studies how words are used to present
information and also to carry out actions.
• Firstly, Austin distinguished between locutionary, illocutionary and
perlocutionary acts, whereas Searle prefer a rigorous approach to the
description of illocutionary acts.
• A second distinction concerns the different emphasis placed by Austin
and Searle on the force and meaning of a speech act. The force of a speech
act is a form of gradation of a particular type of speech act.
• In Searle’s speech act theory, it considers the degree to which utterances
are said to perform locutionary acts, illocutionary acts, and/or
perlocutionary acts.
a) Locutionary Act
- Locutionary act is the utterances with determined sense and reference.
- The act of producing sounds that have meaning.

b) Illocutionary Act
- Illocutionary act is the utterances which had certain or convention force.

c) Perlocutionary Act
- What speaker trying to achieve by saying something.

*** When somebody says "Is there any salt?" at the dinner table, the illocutionary act is a
request: "please give me some salt" even though the locutionary act (the literal
sentence) was to ask a question about the presence of salt. The perlocutionary act (the
actual effect), might be to cause somebody to pass the salt.
SEARLE'S FIVE ILLOCUTIONARY POINTS
1. Assertive
2. Commissive
3. Directive
4. Declaratory
5. Expressive
ASSERTIVE (REPRESENTATIVES)
• Representatives are speech acts that the utterances commit the speaker to
the truth of the expressed proposition. The utterances are produced based
on the speaker’s observation of certain things then followed by stating the
fact or opinion based on the observation.
• Representatives speech act can be noted by some speech acts verb, such as:
remind, tell, assert, deny, correct, state, guess, predict, report, describe,
inform, insist, assure, agree, claim, beliefs, conclude.
• According to Searle “The point or purpose of the members of the assertive
class is to commit the speaker to something is being the case, to see the
truth of the expressed proposition.”
• When someone says “She’s beautiful”
- The speaker can state the sentence based on the fact or just give his or her
own opinion about physical condition of a person.
COMMISSIVES
• Commissives is what the speaker say that relates to the future action.
• Commissives are speech acts that the utterances commit the speaker
to some future course of action, these include promising, threatening,
offering, refusal, pledges.
• Searle stated “The illocutionary acts whose point is to commit the
speaker to commit future course of action.”
• When someone says “I’ll be back”
- Represents the speaker’s promise that he/she will be back.
DIRECTIVE
• - Directive is what the speaker’s say to ask the hearer to do something.
These speech acts include requesting, questioning, command, orders, and
suggesting.
• According to Searle “The illocutionary point of these consist in the fact
that they are attempts by the speaker to get the hearer to do something”
• When someone says “Could you lend me a pencil, please?”
- The utterance represents the speaker requests that the hearer to do
something which is to lend him a pencil.
DECLATORY
• Declarations is what the speaker says that change the
propositional content and reality.
• These speech acts include excommunicating, declaring war,
christening, firing from employment.
• According to Searle “It is the defining characteristic of this class
that the successful performance of it’s members brings about the
correspondence between the propositional content and reality.”
• When someone says “You are dead to me.”
EXPRESSIVES
• Expressives are speech acts that the utterances express a
psychological state. These speech acts include thanking,
apologizing, welcoming, and congratulating.
• According to Searle “The illocutionary point of this class is to
express the psychological state specified in the sincerity condition
about a state affair specified in the propositional content.”
• When someone says “Don’t be shy, my home is your home.”
- The utterance represents the speaker’s expression that they
welcomes someone.
SUMMARY
• The speech act theory was introduced by Oxford philosopher J.L. Austin in
“How to Do Things with Words” and further developed by American
philosopher J.R. Searle. It considers the degree to which utterances are said to
perform locutionary acts, illocutionary acts, and/or perlocutionary acts.
• From Searle's view, there are only five illocutionary points that speakers can
achieve on propositions in an utterance, namely: the assertive, commissive,
directive, declaratory and expressive illocutionary points. Speakers achieve the
assertive point when they represent how things are in the world, the
commissive point when they commit themselves to doing something, the
directive point when they make an attempt to get hearers to do something, the
declaratory point when they do things in the world at the moment of the
utterance solely by virtue of saying that they do and the expressive point when
they express their attitudes about objects and facts of the world.
REFERENCES
• https://www.thoughtco.com/speech-act-theory-1691986
• https://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/projects/milca/courses/dialogue/html/node66.html
• file:///C:/Users/Matthew/Desktop/13150050_BAB-I_IV-atau-V_DAFTAR-PUSTAKA.pdf
• https://www.grin.com/document/345644
• https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/60843-EN-speech-acts-force-behind-words.pdf
• https://sinta.unud.ac.id/uploads/wisuda/1201305073-3-c.%20Chapter%202.pdf
• https://sites.duke.edu/conversions/files/2014/09/Searle_Illocutionary-Acts.pdf
• https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/734/1/uk_bl_ethos_438318.pdf
• http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/speech_act.htm
• https://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/projects/milca/courses/dialogue/html/node66.html