Muchamad Adam Basori, M.A., TESOL
Meeting Unit 11
Sentences and Utterances
(1) If Vicky and Valerian both greet each other one morning with ‘How are you today?’, have they both made the same utterance? Yes / No
(2) How many different sentences are involved when Vicky and Valerian greet each other as above? .......
(3) Is it conceivable to give the exact time, date, and place of an utterance? Yes / No
(4) Is a sentence an event? Yes / No
(5) Can it be said in the case of the English sentence The man shot F. Kennedy with a gun, used out of context as an example, which particular person in the world is the referent of the man? Yes / No
(6) In making the utterance ‘Alexander is great’, would a speaker normally be carrying out an act of referring, i.e. referring to some particular person? Yes / No
Answers and Comments
(1) No (2) One (3) Yes (4) No (5) Yes (6) Yes
When a speaker, in appropriate circumstances, makes an utterance containing a referring expression, he carries out a certain act, an act of referring.
Referring is typically a linguistic act, but we shall see that it is possible to carry out all sorts of other acts using language.
How to do things with words?
Speech is action and how language can actually be used to do things.
Firstly, speech is an act of assertion.
An ACT of ASSERTION is carried out when a speaker utters a declarative sentence (which can be either true or false), and undertakes a certain responsibility, or commitment, to the hearer, that a particular situation, exists in the world.
Example
If I say, ‘Simon is in the kitchen’, I assert (menyatakan) to my hearer that in the real world a situation exists in which a person named Simon is in a room identified by the referring expression the kitchen.
There was once a strong tendency among semanticists to assume that there was not much more to the meanings of sentences (and utterances) than this kind of correspondence between sentences (and utterances) and the world.
This view has been called the Descriptive Fallacy.
Definition and Comments
The DESCRIPTIVE FALLACY is the view that the sole purpose of making assertions is to DESCRIBE some situation.
Example According to the Descriptive Fallacy view, my only purpose in uttering ‘Simon is in the kitchen’ would be to describe a particular state of affairs, and nothing more.
Other acts?
Warning, shocking, complaining, apologizing, insulting, reassuring, etc. are all acts.
They are all things that we DO, using language. An important part of the meaning of utterances is what speakers DO by uttering them. Acts such as teasing, insulting, etc. are aspects of utterance meaning and not of sentence meaning.
Example
“Tolong, ambilkan garam. (command, order)
“Hati-hati saat dalam perjalanan” (advice)
“Maaf atas kelalaian tugas saya.” (apology)
“Maaf barangnya cacat.” (complaint)
“Jika terlambat, nilai berkurang.” (warning)
“Tenanglah sayang, jangan resah.” (reassurance)
Comments
Quite contrary to the popular belief that actions and words are entirely distinct, many actions can actually be performed with words.
Now we will look at some actions, usually, but not always, involving human objects, that can be performed either by physical means, such as a gesture, or by making an appropriate utterance.
(1) Can you congratulate someone by a pat on the back, or a hug? Yes / No
(2) Can you congratulate someone by uttering ‘Well done’? Yes / No
(3) Can you bid at an auction by nodding? Yes / No
(4) Can you bid at an auction by saying ‘Eleven pounds’? Yes / No
(5) Can you promise someone something by a nod? Yes / No
(6) Can you promise someone something with an utterance beginning ‘I promise . . .’? Yes / No
Definition
A PERFORMATIVE utterance is one that actually describes the act that it performs, i.e. it PERFORMS some act and SIMULTANEOUSLY DESCRIBES that act.
‘I promise to repay you tomorrow’ is performative because in saying it the speaker actually does what the utterance describes, i.e. he promises to repay the hearer the next day. That is, the utterance both describes and is a promise.
By contrast, the utterance ‘John promised to repay me tomorrow’, although it describes a promise, is not itself a promise. So this utterance does not simultaneously do what it describes, and is therefore not a performative.
Definition and Example
A CONSTATIVE utterance is one which makes an ASSERTION (i.e. it is often the utterance of a declarative sentence) but is NOT performative.
Example ‘I’m trying to get this box open with a screwdriver’ is a constative utterance, because it makes an assertion about a particular state of affairs, but is not performative, i.e. the utterance does not simultaneously describe and perform the same act.
Comments
You will have noticed that many performative utterances contain the 1st person pronoun ‘I’, followed by a certain type of verb in the present tense.
E.g. ‘I promise . . .’, ‘I admit . . .’, ‘I congratulate . . .’, etc. These are all verbs which describe speech acts. We classify them as performative verbs.
Definition
A PERFORMATIVE VERB is one which, when used in a simple positive present tense sentence, with a 1st person singular subject, can make the utterance of that sentence performative.
Comments and Examples
Sentence is a performative verb because, for example, ‘I sentence you to be hanged by the neck’ is a performative utterance.
Punish is not a performative verb because, for example, ‘I punish you’ is not a performative utterance.
Exercise
Are the following performative verbs, or not?
(1) apologize Yes / No
(2) authorize Yes / No
(3) argue Yes / No
(4) condemn Yes / No
(5) squeal Yes / No
Feedback and Comments
(1) Yes (2) Yes (3) No (4) Yes (5) No
Note that although all of the above verbs describe acts carried out in speech, they are not therefore necessarily performative. Thus although I can argue with you verbally, simply saying ‘I argue’ does not of itself constitute an argument.
On the other hand, simply saying ‘I warn you’ is of itself enough to administer a warning.
Comments
Naturally enough, there are some borderline cases, in which it is hard to say whether some particular verb is, or is not, performative.
Many good examples of performative verbs occur in standardized and stereotyped formulae used in public ceremonies, such as pronounce in ‘I pronounce you man and wife’ in a marriage ceremony.
Comments
The study of sense relations and logic has concentrated almost exclusively on the meaning of only one type of sentence, i.e. declaratives.
Actually, attempts have been made recently to extend logic to cover imperatives and interrogatives, but these suggestions have not been generally accepted as identifying the correct way to analyse non-declaratives.
Comments
Speech acts could provide a link between the senses of declarative and non-declarative sentences.
To start with, imperative and interrogative sentences, when uttered, clearly perform acts, just as declaratives do.
Rules
| Sentence Type | Typical linguistic act performed by uttering a sentence of this type |
| declarative | asserting |
| interrogative | asking |
| imperative | ordering |
(1) Lady at ticket office in railway station: ‘I’d like a day return to Kingston, please’
Sentence type: declarative Act: requesting or ordering
(2) A person promises his friend to go out tonight: ‘Saya janji mengajakmu keluar malam ini karena tahun baru Hijriyah.’
Sentence type: declarative Act: promising
Definition
The PERLOCUTIONARY ACT (or just simply the PERLOCUTION) carried out by a speaker making an utterance is the act of causing a certain effect on the hearer and others.
Example
If I say ‘Malam tahun baru Hijriyah banyak diwarnai mistis oleh orang-orang Islam setempat’, it may well cause you to thinking and responding disputes: Yes and No. Causing these emotions and actions of yours is the perlocution of my utterance, or the perlocutionary act I perform by making that utterance.
Definition
The ILLOCUTIONARY ACT (or simply the ILLOCUTION) carried out by a speaker making an utterance is the act viewed in terms of the utterance’s significance within a conventional system of social interaction.
One way to think about the illocutionary act is that it reflects the intention of the speaker in making the utterance in the first place.
Illocutions are acts defined by social conventions, acts such as accosting, accusing, admitting, apologizing, challenging, complaining, condoling, congratulating, declining, deploring, giving permission, giving way, greeting, leavetaking, mocking, naming, offering, praising, promising, proposing marriage, protesting, recommending, surrendering, thanking, toasting.
Example
‘I’m very grateful to you for all you have done for me’ performs the illocutionary act of thanking, which appears to be the speaker’s intention in making the utterance.
‘Terima kasih mengajakku malam ini.’
‘Saya setuju dengan pendapatmu soal mistisisme saat tahun baru Hijriyah.’
‘Saya kurang sependapat, karena masih banyak dari mereka berbuat yang lebih baik, misalnya, tasyakuran atau pengajian.
Illocutionary acts form a kind of social coinage, a complicated currency with specific values, by means of which speakers manipulate, negotiate, and interact with other speakers. To continue the metaphor, social encounters involve the exchange of illocutions.
Example speaker A: ‘Hello’ (greeting)
speaker B: ‘Hello’ (greeting)
speaker A: ‘You took the last biscuit’ (accusation)
speaker B: ‘No, I didn’t’ (denial)
Different focus…
Generally speaking, the illocutionary act inherent in an utterance is intended by the speaker, is under his full control, and if it is evident, it is so as the utterance is made, whereas the perlocutionary act performed through an utterance is not always intended by the speaker, is not under his full control, and is usually not evident until after the utterance is made.
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