Evaluation Of Speech Act Theory

Evaluation of the Speech Theory The speech act is the basic unit of language used to express meaning, an utterance that expresses an intention. (University of Twente, 2017). Generally, the speech act is usually referenced as a sentence, but it can be a word or phrase, if it follows the rules required to accomplish the intention. When we speak, we perform an act. Speech is not just used to designate something, it does something. So, having said this, the Speech Act Theory basically stresses the intent of the act (speech). There are four types of Speech Acts: utterance act, propositional act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. John Searle, one of founders of this theory, believes that the speaker performs an act by observing two types

L. Austin (University of Twente, 2017). The Locutionary Act is roughly equivalent to uttering a sentence with a certain “meaning” in the traditional senses. An example of the Locutionary Act is when we are saying something to someone and we stutter. The Illocutionary Act is those that inform, order, warn, undertaking utterances which have a straight force. Austin focused on illocutionary acts. John Searle claims the illocutionary act is “the minimal complete unit of human linguistic communication. Whenever we talk or write to each other, we are performing illocutionary acts” (Cline)An example of the Illocutionary Act is when we say, “Don´t run with scissors”. It has the force of a warning when speak in a certain context. The Perlocutionary Act is what we bring about or achieve by saying something, such as convincing, persuading, deterring, or even, surprising or misleading. An example of the Perlocutionary Act is when the speaker says, “Shut the window” which is intended for the other person in the conversation to take this as an order and meaning this person should shut the

Your first thought would be, hopefully, your audience; you would want to know in what way would be better for them to understand what the product is and how it will benefit the company. Most you all will probably get nervous because you don’t know how they will react. Being nervous will not help at all because you should be confident about what your about to present. If you are not confident then you are more likely to stutter, and this will probably make your audience think that you don’t know anything about the product and they will not want to approve