Understanding Speech Acts: A Linguistic Interaction Analysis

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He explains that speech acts should be contemplated because all linguistic communications contain linguistic acts, and speech acts are the fundamental of linguistic interaction. Levinson (1983, as cited in Ellis, 2008) asserted that the “speech act” is generally designates to exclusively illocutionary act. Searle (1975) identified five general groups of speech acts:
1. Representatives or assertive which are about stating a fact; 2. Directives speech acts that are about attempts that make the interlocutor to take an action that is presented in the appearance of a command and/or a request;
3. Expressive which are about some acts that deal with speaker’s emotion, for example, thanking and congratulating; 4. Commissives which are acts that entrust the speaker to take a few actions from now on for example, promising and threatening;
5. Declarations which have an inclination to depend on extra-linguistic institutions for example, christening, declaring.
Searle (1975) …show more content…

Direct level
1. Mood derivable: The syntactic form of the verb in the utterance shows illocutionary force (e.g. "Let me go")
2. Performatives: Discourse in which the illocutionary enforcement is directly named (e.g. “I tell you to let me go.”)
3. Hedged performatives: Labeling of the illocutionary imposition is softened by employing hedging expressions (e.g. "I would like to ask you to let me go.")
4. Obligation statements which mention the obligation of the interlocutor to take an action (e.g. "Sir, you'll have to keep quiet.")
5. Want statements which express the speaker's demand that the interlocutor perform the action (e.g. "I want you to move your car.")
b. Conventionally indirect level
1. Suggestory formulae: Discourses which comprise a suggestion to take an action (e.g. How about cleaning up?")
2. Query-preparatory: Utterances containing reference to preparatory conditions (e.g. capability, willingness) as conventionalized in any specific language (e.g. "Would you mind fastening your

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