¡Descarga topic 2 exercises y más Ejercicios en PDF de Idioma Inglés solo en Docsity!
UNIT 2_SPEECH ACTS
EXERCISES
1. Circle either “Yes” or “No” beside the following questions.
(1) If I say to you I warn you not to come any closer , do I, by so saying, actually perform the act of warning you not to come any closer? YES / NO (2) Does the utterance I warn you not to come any closer describe an act of warning by the speaker? YES / NO (3) Is the utterance I warn you not to come any closer a performative utterance? YES / NO (4) If Sam says to Rachel I admit that I took 50p from the coffee money, does he, by so saying, actually perform the act of admitting that he took the money? YES / NO (5) And does Sam’s utterance describe an act of admission? YES / NO (6) Is I admit that I took 50p from the coffee money performative? YES / NO (7) If someone says I drive a white car , does that utterance itself constitute an act of driving a white car? YES / NO (8) Does the utterance I drive a white car describe an act of driving? YES / NO (9) Is I drive a white car performative? YES / NO
2. Are the following utterances performative (P) or constative (C)?
(1) I name this ship Hibernia. (2) I believe in the dictatorship of the Proletariat. (3) I apologize. (4) I think I was wrong. (5) I hereby inform you that you are sacked. (6) I give you supper every night. (7) I sentence you to ten years of hard labour.
3. Are the following verbs performative or not? Give examples.
(1) sentence (2) authorise (3) argue (4) condemn (5) run (6) shout (7) declare (8) congratulate
4. Think of three more examples of performative verbs used in the formulae of conventionalised public, social and ritual occasions.
• I want to go to the beach.
• I am thinking of doing the homework.
• She is saying that she would like going shopping.
• I am inviting to my party.
• As your friend, I recommend you this film.
C. This is a passage from a play by J.B. Priestly, When we are married. The story concerns three couples who had all been married on the same day at the same ceremony. They are preparing to celebrate their silver wedding when they are shown a letter from the minister who officiated at the wedding which reveals that they had not been properly married [i.e. not according to the usual ritual]:
... Although I was only temporarily at Lane End [chapel] I could not forget it for there I was guilty of the most culpable negligence. I went to Clecklewyke straight from college, and during those first few months I did not realise that there were various forms I ought to have signed, and had witnessed by church officers, so that one may be recorded as an authorised person to perform the ceremony of marriage. The result was, I was not then an authorised person. Fortunately, during that short period I was only called upon twice to marry people, but the first time there were no less than three hopeful young couples who imagined – poor souls – that I was joining them in holy wedlock, when I was completely unauthorised to do so. Condition A (2)
D. ... what if I sneak up on the cruise ship The Queen Elizabeth II at dead of night as it lies in dry dock and, in a fit of republican passion, smash a bottle of Guinness against the hull and re-name it The Albatross? Must it henceforward be known by everyone as The Albatross? (...) My naming of The Albatross [is] unsuccessful or infelicitous – I was not the person mandated by the shipping company to perform the launching ceremony, nor was the time and place appropriate.
Situation: Someone is sneaking up in the boat, this boat was named by Queen Elizabeth II; someone decide to go there and naming the boat, that is already name as “ The Queen Elizabeth II”. Condition A (2)
E. ... in the case of a marriage [it] would be that the marriage must be consummated. If this condition is not met, the marriage is annulled. It was on the grounds of non- consummation that Henry VIII’s fourth marriage (to Anne of Cleves) was declared null. Anne quietly maintained that their marriage had never been consummated, while the ever- chivalrous Henry asserted that on their wedding night he had been: “...struck to the heart by her ugliness and... left her as good a maid as I found her”.
Condition C (2)
7. Read the following definitions that Schiffrin (1994), Levinson (1983), Thomas (1995) and Yule (1996) give in relation to the three related acts that we perform when uttering a sentence. If you were to summarize each act in as few words as possible (no more than 8 to 10 words), what key words would you use?
(1) Locutionary act : a. … involves the uttering of a linguistic expression with sense and reference, i.e. using sounds and words with meaning. It is the act of ‘saying something’. (Schiffrin, 1994: 53) b. The utterance of a sentence with determinate sense and reference (Levinson, 1983: 236) c. The actual words uttered (Thomas, 1995: 49) d. …the basic act of utterance, or producing a meaningful linguistic expression (Yule, 1996: 48).
Linguistic expression; sense and reference, and meaning.
• Act of producing an utterance with sense.
• What you said (utterance) is the locution; everything
that is related to the linguistic expression.
(2) Illocutionary act : a. … is the act performed ‘in saying’ the locution, such that what was said had the force (not the meaning) of that illocution. (Schiffrin, 1994: 53) b. It is the making of a statement, offer, promise, etc in uttering a sentence (Levinson, 1983: 236) c. It is the ‘force’ or ‘intention’ behind the words. (Thomas, 1995: 49)
d. Mostly we don’t just produce well-formed utterances with no ‘purpose’. We form an utterance with some kind of ‘function’ in mind. This is the second dimension, or the illocutionary act (...) The illocutionary act is performed via the communicative force of an utterance. This is also generally known as the ‘illocutionary force’ of an utterance. (Yule, 1996: 48) Force and utterance.
• Speaking intention to address that locution.
• What you really mean by what you said.
(3) Perlocutionary act : a. …is the ‘consequential effects’ of an utterance on an interlocutor, i.e. what is achieved ‘by saying’ something. (Schiffrin, 1994: 53) b. It is the bringing about of effects on the audience by means of uttering the sentence, such effects being special to the circumstances of the utterance. (Levinson, 1983: 236) c. It is the effect of the illocution on the hearer (Thomas, 1995: 49) d. We do not, of course, simply create an utterance with a function without intending it to have an effect. This is the third dimension, the perlocutionary act (Yule, 1996: 48-9)
Effect and utterance.
• The effect on the words on the hearer.
3. Child to playground supervisor: Miss, Billy just swore at me.
He told me to piss off.
Illocutionary force: accusing, protesting. Perlocutionary effect: try to make the teacher feels sad because she did not expect this of Billy.
4. One chess player to another: I just made a bad move.
Illocutionary force: lying to confuse the other, surrendering. Perlocutionary effect: feel the other confuse. Paying attention to the bad move and take advantage of it. Celebrated being happy for winning.
5. Policeman to strange-looking man in street: Good evening,
Sir. Do you live around here?
Illocutionary force: accusing, intimidating. Perlocutionary effect: so the man run away without response him.
9. Take a sentence such as ‘ There’s a piece of fish on the table ’.
(1) Could this sentence be uttered as a means of complaining to
a waiter in a restaurant that a table had not been cleared properly? YES / NO
(2) Could it, in other circumstances, be uttered to warn one’s
husband or wife not to let the cat in the kitchen? YES / NO
(3) Could it, in still other circumstances, be uttered to reassure
one’s husband or wife that his or her lunch has not been forgotten? YES / NO
(4) Could it, in a different situation, be used to incriminate a
child who had raided the refrigerator? YES / NO
(5) Are individual sentences generally identifiable with single
specific acts that are carried out by uttering them? YES / NO
10. For each of the following illocutionary forces provided, think of three or four sentences that can be uttered expressing that force.
EXAMPLE: force : REQUESTING someone to close the door. utterances: Shut the door! Did you forget the door? Born in a barn?
(1) force : OFFERING someone a cup of tea.
about it. Eventually, your mother threatens her by saying: If you go there, you will see.
Illocutionary force : to threat. Perlocutionary effect : the daughter tries to convince her mother, or she goes to the party anyway.
