Топик: Косвенные речевые акты в современном английском языке
In the late 1950s, the Oxford philosopher John Austin gave some lectures on howspeakers “do things with words” and so invented a theory of “speech acts”[10, 40] which now occupies the central place in pragmatics (pragmatics is the study of how we use language to communicate in a particular context). Austin highlighted the initial contrast between the constative and the performative . While constatives describe a state of affairs, performatives (explicit and implicit) have the potential to bring about a change insome state of affairs. Classical examples of performatives include the naming of a ship, the joining oftwo persons in marriage, and the sentencing of a criminal by an authorised person. Austin distinguished between the locution of a speech act (the words uttered),its illocution (the intention of the speaker in making the utterance) and its perlocution (its effects, intended or otherwise).Whereas constatives typically have truth conditions to comply with, speech acts mustsatisfy certain “felicity conditions” in order to count as an action: there must be a conventional procedure; the circumstances and people must be appropriate; the procedure must be executed correctly and completely; often, the persons must have the requisite thoughts, feelings, etc.
John Austin’s theory of speech acts was generalized to cover all utterances by a student of Austin's, John Rogers Searle [43, 69]. Searle showed that we perform speech acts every time we speak. For example, asking “What's the time?” we are performing the speech act of making a request. Turning an erstwhile constative into an explicit performative looks like this: “It is now ten o’clock ” means “I hereby pronounce that it is ten o’ clock in the morning.”
In such a situation, the original constative versus performative distinction becomes untenable: all speech is performative. The important distinction is not between the performative and the constative, but between the different kinds of speech acts being performed, that is between direct and indirect speech acts.Searle's hypothesis was that in indirect speech acts, the speaker communicates the non-literal as well as the literal meaningto the hearer. This new pragmatic trend was named intentionalism because it takes into account the initial intention of the speaker and its interpretation by the hearer.
Actuality of research:
The problem of indirect speech acts has got a great theoretical meaning for analysis of the form/function relation in language: the same form performs more than one function. To generate an indirect speech act, the speaker has to use qualitatively different types of knowledge, both linguistic and extralinguistic (interactive and encyclopaedic), as well as the ability to reason [45, 97]. A number of theories try to explain why we make indirect speech acts and how we understand their non-literal meaning, but the research is still far from being complete.
The practical value of research lies in the fact that it is impossible to reach a high level of linguistic competence without understanding the nature of indirect speech acts and knowing typical indirect speech acts of a particular language.
The tasks of research:
1) analysis of the theories on indirect speech acts;
2) finding out why interlocutors generate indirect speech acts instead of saying exactly what they mean;
3) comparing typical indirect speech acts in English and in Ukrainian;
4) providing examples of indirect speech acts in various communicational situations.
The object of research is a speech act asa communicational action that speakers perform by saying things in a certain way in a certain context.
The subject of research is an indirect speech act as the main way in which the semantic content of a sentence can fail to determine the full force and content of the illocutionary act being performed in using the sentence.
Methods of research include critical analysis of scientific works on the subject, analysis of speech of native English speakers in various communicational situations, analysis of speech behavior of literary personages created by modern British and American writers.
1. INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS: FORM VERSUS FUNCTION
“Communication is successful not when
hearers recognize the linguistic meaning of the
utterance, but when they infer the speaker's
meaning from it.”
Dan Sperber and Deidre Wilson
Most of what human beings say is aimed at success of perlocutionary acts, but because perlocutionary effects are behavioural, cognitive, or emotional responses they are not linguistic objects. What linguists can properly look at, however, are the intentions of speakers to bring about certain perlocutionary effectswhich are called illocutionary intentions.
The basis of a speech act is the speaker’s intention to influence the hearer in a desired way. The intention can be manifested and latent. According to O.G. Pocheptsov [13,74], latent intentions cannot be linguistically analyzed while manifested intentions can be divided into evident and inferable. The illocutinary intention of indirect speech acts is inferable.
Three broad illocutionary categories are normally identified – a statement, a question and a command/request - having typical realisations in declarative,interrogative and imperative verb forms. But sometimes the syntactic form of a sentence is not a good guide to the act it is performing. In indirect speech acts the agreement between the intendedfunction and the realised form breaks down, and the outward(locutionary) form of an utterance does not correspond with the intendedillocutionary force of the speech act which it performs [37, 263].In indirection a single utterance is the performance of one illocutionary act by way of performing another. Indirect speech acts have two illocutionary forces [45, 195].
Searle’s classical example of an indirect speech act is the utterance “Can you pass the salt?” Without breaking any linguistic norms we can regard it as a general question and give a yes/no answer. But most often hearers interpret it as a request. Likewise, the utterance “There's a fly in your soup” may be a simple assertion but, in a context, a warning not to drink the soup. The question “What's the time?” might, when one is looking for an excuse to get rid of an unwelcome guest, be intended as a suggestion that the guest should leave. Analogously, the statement “I wouldn't do this if I w ere you ” has the congruent force of an imperative: “Don't do it! ”
In his works Searle gives other interesting examples of indirect speech acts:Why don’t you be quiet? It would be a good idea if you gave me the money now. How many times have I told you (must I tell you) not to eat with your fingers? I would appreciate it if you could make less noise. In some contexts these utterances combine two illocutionary forces and sound idiomatic, even though they are not idioms in the proper sense of the term. Each utterance contains an imperative (secondary illocution) realized by means of a question or a statement (primary illocution).
Paul Griceillustratesindirectness by the following utterances [4, 22]: “There is a garage around the corner ” used to tell someone where to get petrol, and “ Mr. X's command of English is excellent, and his attendance has been regular ” , giving the high points in a letter of recommendation. A simple example of an indirect speech act gives B.Russel: “When parents say ‘Puddle !’ to their child, what they mean is ‘Don’t step into it!’ [41, 195].These are examples in which what is meant is not determined by what is said.
We can make a request or give permission by way of making a statement, e.g. by uttering “I am getting thirsty .” or “It doesn't matter to me .” W e can make a statement or give an order by way of asking a question, such as “Will the sun rise tomorrow? ” or “Can you clean up your room? ” When an illocutionary act is performed indirectly, it is performed by way of performing some other one directly.
It has been found that indirect expressives, directives and representatives compose the most numerous group of indirect speech acts [11, 23].
The study of indirect speech acts has mostly dealt with requests in various guises. Jerrold M. Sadock identified some exotic species: “whimperatives” - indirect requests in the form of a question, e.g. “Can't you (please) do something ? ” and “Do something , will you? ” ; “queclaratives” -the speaker directly questions and indirectly makes an assertion:“Does anyone do A any more? ” meaning "Nobody does A any more"; “requestions” are quiz questions to which the speaker knows the answer, e.g. Columbus discovered America in ...? [42, 168].
Summarizing, we can say that indirection is the main way in which the semantic content of a sentence can fail to determine the full force and content of the illocutionary act being performed in using the sentence.
2. WHY DO SPEAKERS HAVE TO BE INDIRECT?