SPEECH ACTS AND

CLAUSE TYPES

SUMMARY

1 Speech acts are the acts we perform through words. Certain general types of speech act are basic to everyday interaction; these are statements, questions, exclamations and directives, the latter covering orders, requests and instructions among others.

2 Each of these basic speech acts is associated in the grammar with a type of clause: the declarative is typically used to encode a statement, the interrogative a question, the imperative a directive and the exclamative an exclamation. These are the direct correspondences between form and function that we refer to as direct speech acts.

3 Indirect correspondences are also common in English. Thus declaratives, as well as encoding statements, can be used to ask questions, utter exclamations and issue directives, in addition to other speech acts such as promising and warning. In such cases the form is used to convey an ‘intended meaning’ or ‘illocutionary force’ that is different from its basic one. You’re staying here, then? has the form of a declarative – but, with appropriate intonation, the force is that of a question, as is indicated by the punctuation. The relationship between clause type and force is therefore not one-to-one but many-to-many.

4 Even more indirectly, the words we use do not always fully express our intended speech act. For example, It’s cold in here might be intended, and interpreted, as a request to turn up the heating. Hearers use inference to recover the intended meaning at specific points in a conversation, based on assumptions of cooperativeness, truth, relevance and cultural knowledge.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

استعدادًا لانطلاق الفعاليات.. وصول المشاركات في مسابقة بصائر العلم الوطنية إلى مجمع الشيخ الكليني

قسم الشؤون الدينية يستذكر فضائل يوم دحو الأرض عبر محاضراته اليومية

عبر منافذ العتبة العباسية المقدسة.. ممثّلية مواكب محافظتي ديالى وذي قار تشارك بحملة التبرّع للشعبين الإيراني واللبناني

لتوسيعِ آفاقِ الإفادةِ من محتواها.. مركز الشيخ الأنصاري يحدّث الموقع الإلكترونيّ لمجلّة الخزانة

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

خبير يكشف 5 حقائق طبية صادمة وغير معروفة

ليس الأسود ولا الحيتان.. "كائن صغير" هو أخطر قاتل للبشر!

بارقة أمل لمرضى "الإيدز".. علاج خلوي ينجح في كبح الفيروس

ظاهرة مقلقة تتوسع.. "المستنشقات" خطر صامت يهدد المراهقين

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

اكتشاف مادة في الثوم تحسن قوة العضلات وتبطئ شيخوختها

تطور الحياة على الأرض المبكرة اعتمد على معدن نادر

باحثون صينيون يطوّرون بطارية مائية قد تعمل 300 عام

الذكاء الاصطناعي..هل يصبح متهما جنائيا في الجرائم والانتحار؟

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

QUESTION TAGS

YES/NO INTERROGATIVES AND THEIR RESPONSES

INTERROGATIVE CLAUSES, NEGATION AND THE DO-OPERATOR

THE DECLARATIVE CLAUSE TYPE

THE DECLARATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE CLAUSE TYPES CLAUSE TYPES AND THE MOOD ELEMENT: SUBJECT-FINITE VARIATION

SPEECH ACTS AND CLAUSE TYPES THE BASIC CORRESPONDENCES

COMPLEMENTATION BY NON-FINITE CLAUSES SUMMARY

PAST PARTICIPIAL CLAUSES

Potential and factual meanings contrasted: to-infinitive and -ing clauses

Type 6: V + NG + -ing clause – I saw them waiting

Type 5 b: V + NG + -ing – We deplore his/him risking his life in this way

Type 5a: V + -ing clause – I like listening to music