Speech Acts And Speech Events

Task 1: Discuss the intended meaning of the following utterances and say whether there is a mismatch between the literal meaning and the intended meaning (i.e. whether you are facing an indirect speech act); it will help you to imagine the context of situation where the utterances may be situated:

1. Would you like me to pick you up at eight. (to his wife)

Indirect speech act asking to actually pick her up at eight but with greater politeness.

There is a typical pattern in English whereby asking a question about the hearer's future likelihood with regard to doing something ('will you', 'would you') normally counts as a request to actually do that something.

2. I won't be there before 9.00 o'clock. (to a colleague)

Direct speech act. Whenever there is a direct relationship between a structure and a function it is a direct speech act and the speaker is saying (declarative) he won't be there at that time, so it is a direct speech act.

3. This is a no smoking zone. (in a public building)

Declarative: Indirect speech act if: the speaker wants hearer not tosmoke. It is a declarative used to make a request so it is an indirect speech act.

It is direct speech act if: the speaker is showing someone the zone. It's a declarative also.

4. Do you know about our offer on oil? (in a petrol station)

Direct speech act. Whenever there is a direct relationship between a structure and a function it is a direct speech act and the speaker is asking (interrogative) if the hearer knows the offer, so it is a direct speech act.

Task 2: Identify the speech event type of the following exchange:

A: So I was wondering would you be in your office on Monday by any chance? Probably not. The request is the whole speech event, not a single speech act.

B: Hmm yes

A: You would? no actual request is made, it is only to continue the conversation

B:Yea

A: So if we came by you could give us ten minutes of your time? This question could be characterized as a pre-request, allowing the hearer to say that s/he's busy or that s/he has to be somewhere else.

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