Speech Act

A Speech Act is a linguistic generation act of a speech task (by a speaker producing voiced linguistic expressions).

• AKA: Illocutionary Act, Language Act, Linguistic Act.
• Context:
  • Performance Measures, such as: felicity score, perlocutionary success rate, comprehension level.
  • ...
  • It can (typically) convey Propositional Content through the literal meaning of the words spoken.
  • It can (typically) perform an Illocutionary Force through the intended effect of the utterance.
  • It can (typically) produce a Perlocutionary Effect through the actual impact on the listener.
  • ...
  • It can range from being a Simple Speech Act to being a Complex Speech Act, depending on its length and structure.
  • It can range from being a Sincere Speech Act to being an Insincere Speech Act, depending on the alignment between expressed content and speaker's actual beliefs.
  • It can range from being a Successful Speech Act to being an Unsuccessful Speech Act, depending on whether it achieves its intended effect.
  • It can range from being a Face-to-Face Speech Act to being a Digital Speech Act, depending on its delivery medium.
  • It can range from being a Culturally Universal Speech Act to being a Culture-Specific Speech Act, depending on its cultural context.
  • ...
  • It can be evaluated by Felicity Conditions, which are necessary conditions for a speech act to be successful and non-defective.
  • It can (often) utilize Digital Speech Technology for automated generation or recognition.
  • It can (often) adapt to Digital Platform Contexts like video calls or voice messages.
  • It can (typically) follow Cultural Speech Protocols in formal settings.
  • It can (often) require Cultural Adaptation for cross-cultural communication.
  • ...
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• Examples:
  • Illocutionary Speech Acts, such as:
    • Assertive Speech Acts, such as Statements and Claims.
    • Directive Speech Acts, such as Requests, Commands and Pleas.
    • Commissive Speech Acts, such as Promises, Vows and Threats.
    • Expressive Speech Acts, such as Apologies, Praises, Complaints and Thank-Yous.
    • Declaration Speech Acts, such as Pronouncements and Decrees.
    • ...
  • Indirect Speech Acts, such as:
    • Indirect Speech Acts, e.g. "It's cold in here" to mean "Please close the window."
    • Indirect Speech Acts, e.g. "I'll think about it" to mean "No."
  • ...
• Counter-Examples:
  • Non-Verbal Communication Acts, such as Gestures and Facial Expressions, which convey meaning but not through words.
  • Locutionary Acts, which are the utterances of meaningful linguistic expressions, but without considering their illocutionary force.
  • Perlocutionary Acts, which are the actual effects or consequences of speech acts, but are distinct from the speech acts themselves.
• See: Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis, Conversation Analysis, Sociolinguistics, Philosophy of Language.

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References

2024

• (Wikipedia, 2024) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/speech_act Retrieved:2024-12-9.
  • In the philosophy of language and linguistics, a speech act is something expressed by an individual that not only presents information but performs an action as well. For example, the phrase "I would like the mashed potatoes; could you please pass them to me?" is considered a speech act as it expresses the speaker's desire to acquire the mashed potatoes, as well as presenting a request that someone pass the potatoes to them.

    According to Kent Bach, "almost any speech act is really the performance of several acts at once, distinguished by different aspects of the speaker's intention: there is the act of saying something, what one does in saying it, such as requesting or promising, and how one is trying to affect one's audience". The contemporary use of the term "speech act" goes back to J. L. Austin's development of performative utterances and his theory of locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts. Speech acts serve their function once they are said or communicated. These are commonly taken to include acts such as apologizing, promising, ordering, answering, requesting, complaining, warning, inviting, refusing, and congratulating.

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