III言语行为理论Speech Acts Theory.docx

III言语行为理论Speech Acts Theory.docx

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III言语行为理论SpeechActsTheory

Pragmatics-TeachingPlan（4）

III.SpeechActsTheory

3.1PhilosophicalBackground

3.2Austin’sPerformative-ConstativeDichotomy

3.2.1EarlyDevelopment

3.2.2FelicityConditionsforPerformativesandTheirInadequacies

3.2.3Austin’sGrammatical-LexicalCriteriaforPerformativesandTheirInadequacies

3.2.3.1GrammaticalCriteriaforPerformatives

3.2.3.2LexicalCriteriaforPerformatives

3.2.3.3TheInadequaciesoftheGrammatical-LexicalCriteria

3.3Austin’sTrichotomyofSpeechActs

3.4Austin’sClassificationofIllocutionaryActs

3.5Searle’sInterpretationoftheSpeechActs

3.6Searle’sDistinctionbetweenPropositionalContentandIllocutionaryAct

3.7Searle’sLinguisticCriteriaforSpeechActs

3.8Searle’sFelicityConditionsforPerformingaSpeechAct

3.9Searle’sClassificationofIllocutionaryActs

Readings:

Levinson,1983:

Chapter5:

SpeechActs

Verschueren,1999:

Section1.1.2

何兆熊,2000:

第四章

Austin,J.L.HowtoDoThingswithWords[M].Oxford:

ClarendonPress,1962.

Searle,J.R.SpeechActs[M].Cambridge:

CambridgeUniversityPress,1969.

Searle,J.R.ExpressionandMeaning:

StudiesintheTheoryofSpeechActs[M].Cambridge:

CambridgeUniversityPress,1979.

JiangWangqi,2000:

Chapter6.

III.SpeechActsTheory

3.1PhilosophicalBackground

Speechacttheoryisthefirstmajortheoryinpragmatics,initiallyproposedinthe1950sandwidelydiscussedinthe1960sand1970s.Thereisanenormousliteratureonitfromboththephilosophicalandlinguisticpointofview.（JiangWangqi,p197）

Intheearly20thcentury,philosophersrealizedthatmanyphilosophicalproblemswereinfactproblemsoflanguage,andcouldbesolvedthroughaproperanalysisoflanguage.Thisapproachtophilosophycametobeknownasanalyticphilosophyorlinguisticphilosophy,ofwhichlogicalpositivism（orlogicalempiricism逻辑实证哲学）andordinarylanguagephilosophyweretwocontrastiveschools.JohnLangshawAustin,thefatherofthespeechacttheory,wastherepresentativeoftheordinarylanguagephilosophers.

Logicalpositivismandordinarylanguagephilosophydisagreeinanumberofways:

（1）Intheirattitudestowardsordinarylanguage:

Logicalpositivism:

Ordinarylanguageisinadequateandneedstobepolishedorreplacedbyanideal,logical,orartificiallanguage;

Ordinarylanguagephilosophy:

Ordinarylanguageisthebest,mostneededanddesirableone.

（2）Intheirtheoriesofmeaning:

Logicalpositivism:

Unlessasentencecanbeverifiedortestedforitstruthorfalsity,itismeaningless.Andlogicalpositivistshavedevelopedatheoryofmeaningonthebasisoftruthconditions.

Ordinarylanguagephilosophy:

Adistinctionshouldbemadebetweenasentenceandtheuseofthesentence.Asentenceinabstractsensecannotbeassignedanytruthvalue;onlywhenasentenceisusedinactualsituations,willitbepossibletosaywhetheritistrueornot.

SpeechacttheorygrowsoutofAustin’sstruggleagainstlogicalpositivism.Austin’sfirstshotatlogicalpositivismisthattherearetwotypesofsentences:

performativesentences,whichareusedtodothings,andconstativesentences,whichareusedtodescribethings.

（JiangWangqi,p197-198.TobemodifiedwithreferencetoLevinson,p227）

3.2Austin’sPerformative-ConstativeDichotomy

3.2.1EarlyDevelopment

Thisperformative-constativedistinctionwasfirstmadebyAustininthelate1930stointerpretthespeechactof“promising”.AccordingtoAustin,bysaying“Ipromise”,oneisnotjusttosaysomethingormakeanautobiographicalassertionaboutoneselflike“Iplaycricket”,buttodoit,thatis,tomakeapromise.Austindevotedmuchefforttothisstudyofthetypeofutteranceswhichlookautobiographical,asifthespeakerweresayingofhimselfthathedoessomething,whereasinfactheisdoingit.（JiangWangqi,p198-199）.

In1952,Austinbegantogiveaseriesoflecturesentitled“WordsandDeeds”inOxford.In1955,whenhewenttotheUnitedStatestodeliverWilliamJameslectures,herevisedthelecturenotesandrenameditHowtoDoThingswithWords.ThebookofthesametitlewascompiledandpublishedbyhisstudentJ.O.Urmsonin1962.Itcontains12lectures,inthefirst7ofwhichAustindiscussedtheperformative-constativedichotomy.（JiangWangqi,p200）.

Constativeutterances

Examples:

（1）Ipoursomeliquidintothetube.（saidbyachemistryteacherinademonstrationofanexperiment,whichdescribestheteacher’sactionatthetimeofspeaking）

Theutteranceofthissentenceisnottheperformanceoftheactionofpouringsomeliquid.Theteachercannotpouranyliquidintoatubebysimplyutteringthesewords.Hemustaccompanyhiswordswiththeactualpouringofsomeliquidintothetube.Otherwiseonecanaccusehimofmakingafalsestatement.

（2）WewentdowntoComo.（Thissentencecanbeevaluatedalongthedimensionoftruth/falsity,too）

Performativeutterances

Examples:

（1）Ido.（asutteredintheweddingceremony）

（2）InamethisshiptheQueenElizabeth.（asutteredforaship-launchingceremony）

（3）Igiveandbequeathmywatchtomybrother.（asoccurringinone’swill）

（4）Ibetyousixpenceitwillraintomorrow.（asutteredforbetting）

（Austin,1962:

5）

（5）Ipromisetofinishitintime.（asinpromise-makng）

（6）Iapologize.

（7）Ideclarethemeetingopen.

（8）Iwarnyouthatthebullwillcharge.

Thecommonfeaturesofperformativeutterancesareasfollows:

（A）Theydonot“describe”or“report”orconstateanythingatall,arenot“true”or“false”;

（B）Theutteringofthesentenceis,orisapartof,thedoingofanaction,whichagainwouldnotnormallybedescribedas,oras“just”,sayingsomething.

（Austin,1975[1962]:

5）

（C）Theycannotbesaidtobetrueorfalse,butcanbeevaluatedalongadimensionof“felicity”（恰当性）.Forexample,“IpromisetogotoComo”isnotfelicitousunlessIintendtogotoComoandcommitmyselftodoingso;“InamethisshiptheQueenElizabeth”requiresmybeingauthorizedtoperformthenamingofthisship.

Anillustration:

Example

（2）,saidbytheQueenofEnglandataship-launchingceremony,isnotadescriptionofwhatwasdoingatthetimeofspeaking;toutterthissentenceistoperformtheveryactionofnamingthisship;onecannotsaytheQueenmadeafalsestatement,eventhoughshedidnotaccompanyherwordswiththeactionofactuallywritingQueenElizabethontheship.

3.2.2FelicityConditionsforPerformativesandTheirInadequacies

Althoughperformativescannotbeevaluatedastrueorfalse,therearestillwaysinwhichtheywillgowrong,beunhappy/infelicitous.Inotherwords,thereareconditionstobemettoproduceanappropriateperformative.ThefollowingarethethreefelicityconditionssuggestedbyAustin（1962:

14-15）andrewrittenbyLevinson（1983:

229）:

A.（i）Theremustexistanacceptedconventionalprocedurehavingacertainconventionaleffect,thatproceduretoincludetheutteringofcertainwordsbycertainpersonsincertaincircumstances.

Forillustration,inMuslincultures,amanmayachieveadivorcebysayingtohiswife“Iherebydivorceyou”threetimesinsuccession.Theutteringofthesewordsconstitutestheperformanceofdivorce.AsaBritishcitizen,however,hecannotdivorcehiswifeinthisway.ThereisnosuchaconventionalprocedureinBritishsociety.

A.（ii）Theparticularpersonsandcircumstancesinagivencasemustbeappropriate,asspecifiedinheprocedure.

Forillustration,accordingtotheMuslintradition,onlythemanhastherighttodivorcehiswifeinthewaymentionedabove,andhehastoaddressittohiswife;otherwise,thedivorceprocedurewillstillbeinfelicitous.

B.Theproceduremustbeexecutedbyallparticipants（i）correctlyand（ii）completely.

Forillustration,intheabovementioneddivorceceremony,theMuslinmanmustusethecorrectsentence.Ifhedoesnot,thenitwillnothavetheexpectedeffect.Andhemustsayitthreetimesinsuccession.Onceortwiceisnotenoughtobringitoff.

C.（i）Oftenthepersonsmusthavetherequisitethoughts,feelingsandintentions,asspecifiedintheprocedure.

Thatistosay,thespeakermustmeanwhathesays.Whenpromising,forexample,hemustbepreparedtofulfillit.

C.（ii）Ifconsequentconductisspecified,thentherelevantpartiesmustsodo.

Forexample,havingpromised,thespeakermustdosoaccordingly.

Problemsinthethreefelicityconditions:

Inthediscussionoftheseconditions,however,Austingraduallyrealizedthattheyarenotreallyusefulfordistinguishingperformativesfromconstatives.

Supportingarguments:

Itistruethatwithsomeperformatives,therewillbeaconventionalprocedureandtheproceduremustbeexecutedcorrectlyandcompletelyindeed.SoattheweddingceremonyinBritain,whenthepriestasksthebridegroom,“Wiltthouhavethiswomantothyweddedwife…and,forsakingallother,keeptheeonlyuntoher,solongasyebothshalllive?

”,thebridegroomcouldonlyanswer“Yes,Iwill”.Hecannotuseotherexpressions,eveniftheyaresynonymous.

Counter-arguments:

（1）Itisalsotruethatwithsomeperformatives,theremaynotbesuchastrictrestrictiononwording:

（A）Ataship-launchingceremony,thenamermayeitherusenameorchristen;

（B）Tomakeapromise,oneeithersayIpromiseorIgivemyword;

（2）Ontheotherhand,theso-calledconstativesmayalsobeinfelicitousinaboveways:

（A）TheconstativeThepresentkingofFranceisbaldisinfelicitousinthesamewaysastheperformativeIbequeathyoumyBenzsaidbysomeonewhodoesnothaveaBenz.Theybothpresupposetheexistenceofsomethingnonexistent.

（B）Thepersonwhomakesastatementmustalsohavetherequisitethoughts,fee