Searle Classification Of Speech Acts Analysis

Searle's Classification of Illocution Speech Acts

Searle categorized speech acts based on the functions assigned to them:

Assertives :They express beliefs or describe something . Assertives are of different kinds such as suggesting, boasting and concluding.

Directives : They are speech acts which make the hearer take a certain action such as : ordering, requesting and inviting.

Commissives: They commit the speaker to do something in the future such as promising, offering and oath.

Expressives: Express feelings ,attitudes or psychological states within the speaker . Examples of expressives are thanking and apologizing.

Declarations :They change the state of the world by the utterance such as in pronouncing someone husband and wife at weddings.

Speech Act of Offering

In everyday interaction a great number of offering occurs. People usually offer help, a drink, a ride,an item, money, etc. and in return it can be accepted or refused by the other party. Austin (1962) states that offering is a kind of commisive speech act. In an offer , a speaker expresses his willing to do something for somebody or give something to someone . Searle’s (1969), says that offers involve commitment on the part of the speaker to perform an act for the sake of the addressee.

Offering is one of the most important social phenomena in everyday interaction .The present study aims at studying the different offering patterns and strategies that are used by Jordanian speakers in everyday interaction . The researcher will also study and analyze the different social factors that stand beyond using such patterns.

Literature Review

Yongbing (1998) examined some pairs of conversation formulas of speech acts of gree...

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...before closing a conversation functioning as gambits and politeness formulas.

Al-Qahtani (2009) investigated the differences in female use of politeness strategies between Spoken Saudi Arabic and Spoken British English in the speech act of offering based on Brown and Levinson’s (1987) model of politeness .The data were collected through the use of a Discourse Completion Test and interviews. Gender as social variables when producing offers was investigated . The sample consisted of 53 female Saudis and 50 British English women. The results showed inter-group differences between the Saudi Arabic and British female speakers in the use of politeness strategies in offers. There was social distance between both groups. The gender showed a significant impact on the use of politeness strategies in realizing offers in the Saudi female group but not in the British.