C ↑ I (s does a)

The direction of fit is world-to-word and the sincerity condition is Intention. The propositional content is always that the speaker S does some future action A.

The direction of fit is the same for commissives and directives.

Expressives.

• The illocutionary point of this class is to express the psychological state specified in the sincerity condition about a state of affairs specified in the propositional content.

• The paradigms of expressive verbs are thank, congratulate, apologize, condole, deplore, and welcome.

• In expressives there is no direction of fit. (In performing an expressive, the speaker is neither trying to get the world to match the words nor the words to match the world; rather the truth of the expressed proposition is presupposed.) Thus, for example, when I apologize for having stepped on your toe, it is not my purpose either to claim that your toe was stepped on nor to get it stepped on.

• This fact is neatly reflected in the syntax of English. Let’s consider the following examples.

Successful performance guarantees that the propositional content corresponds to the world: if I successfully perform the act of appointing you chairman, then you are chairman; if I successfully perform the act of nominating you as candidate, then you are a candidate; if I successfully perform the act of declaring a state of war, then war is on; if I successfully perform the act of marrying you, then you are married.

The paradigm expressive verbs in their performative occurrence will not take that clauses but require a gerundive nominalization transformation (or some other nominal).

Declarations. Declarations bring about some alteration in the status or condition of the referred to object or objects solely in virtue of the fact that the declaration has been successfully performed.

The surface syntactical structure of many sentences used to perform declarations conceals this point from us. In them there is no surface syntactical distinction between propositional content and illocutionary force. (E.g., "You're fired" and "I resign") But in their use to perform declarations their semantic structure is:

“You're fired.”  I declare: your employment is (hereby) terminated.

“I resign.”  I declare: my position is (hereby) terminated.

In Austin's first introduction of his distinction between performatives and constatives, the meaning of declarations has not been properly understood. The original distinction between constatives and performatives was supposed to be a distinction between utterances which are sayings (constatives, statements, assertions, etc.) and utterances which are doings (promises, bets, warnings, etc.).

Just as saying certain things constitutes getting married (a "performative") and saying certain things constitutes making a promise (another "performative"), so saying certain things constitutes making a statement (supposedly a "constative").

Task 2. Find out the type of speech act for three different situations.

1. Assume a pilot of plane p says at time t to ATC We are low on fuel. In this he says something, namely that p is low on fuel at t; this is the “……………..act”.

2. By saying that, the pilot has a particular intention beyond communication itself, e.g. that ATC will afford preferential treatment in the landing process; the intention to bring about such an effect is the “……………………act”.

3. In saying that, the pilot informs ATC of something, that p is low on fuel at t, and asks him to recognize the consequences of this fact; this is called the “……………………….act”.

Task 3. A. Which in the pair of sentences is appropriate:

1. I apologize that I stepped on your toe;

2. I apologize for stepping on your toe.

B. What semantic group of verbs is represented in the principal clauses of the following utterances?

C. What type of illocutionary acts is represented in them and what syntactic structures are to be used ? Transform the sentences to make them correct:

1. I congratulate you that you won the race.  _________________________

2. I thank you that you paid me the money.  __________________________

3. I condole with you that you lost your Grandma.  ____________________

4. We welcomed them that they would come to our city.  ________________

5. My Aunt deplored that her husband had died.  ______________________

Task 4. Find out the illocutionary point for all given speech acts. Are they directive, representative / assertive, expressive or commissive?

Obvious examples, often cited in the literature, are provided by the sincerity conditions. In general, one can perform any illocutionary act by asserting (though not by questioning) the satisfaction of the sincerity condition for that act. Thus, for example:

1. I am sorry I did it (___________, ______________).

2. I think/believe he is in the next room (____________, ______________).

3. I beg you not to tell my parents about it. (___________, ___________)

4. I am so glad you won (_____________, _____________).

5. I intend to try harder next time, coach (____________, ______________).

6. I advise not giving up. (___________, _____________)

7. I am grateful for your help (___________, _____________).

8. I volunteered to help. (__________________, _____________)

9. I permit you to leave earlier. (_____________, _____________)

Task 5.

A. Read the rule and, using the given examples, explain how it works.

One can perform an indirect illocutionary act by asserting, but not by querying, one's own psychological states; and one can perform an indirect illocutionary act by querying, but not by asserting, the presence of psychological states in one's hearer.

1. "Do you want me to leave?" (__________________),

2. "You want me to leave." (____________)

3. "You want me to leave, don't you?" (____________)

4. "I want to help you out" (__________________)

5. "Do I want to help you out?" (_____________________)

B . Indirect speech acts also include a large number of hypothetical sentences, especially the class of indirect _____________. Read the utterances and find out what elementary psychological state they express:

1. If you wish any further information, just let me know.

2. If I can be of assistance, I would be most glad to help. (_______)

3. If you need any help, call me at the office.

C. Define the class of speech acts the following utterances represent. Are they direct speech acts or indirect?

"Leave the room" (___________, _________, _______________________);

"I order you to leave the room" (___________, _________, _________________);

"I wonder if you would mind leaving the room" (__________, _________, ___________).

Task 6. Study Reference Notes 3 with Searle’s program for the analysis of indirect speech act performances, then read and study a case of indirect speech act analysis given below.

The theoretical apparatus used to explain this case includes mutual background information, a theory of speech acts, and certain general principles of conversation.