Speech Act /
Communicative Act:
Components and
Functions
Language, when seen as a system of rules (including phonology,
morphology, syntax, grammar, semantics,pragmatics), and focusing on rules describing
competence rather than performance, limits our ability to look at communication
systems more generally and to see important characteristics of speech forms
that are used within speech communities and between them.
Basic limitations of theoretical linguistics of the past to the
sentence as the largest unit of analysis and to referential meaning as
the only relevant sort of meaning, and of analytical interest primarily in
terms of "same or different," can be overcome in part by taking a
more inclusive view of speech as a form of
communication; by starting with an analysis of the "communicative
act" (or simply the "speech act") in terms of the components
that comprise it and the functions that can be served through it.
Speech Act (or Communicative Act) Components
(Hymes and Jakobson)
TOPIC
referential
poetic
expressive MESSAGE FORM directive
SENDER MESSAGE CHANNEL RECEIVER
identificational contact rhetorical
metalinguistic
CODE
The components and functions
above are all within (or "enclosed by") another component, the
CONTEXT, and an associated function of the communicative act
as a whole could be called
contextual
Different societies will make
differential use of and definitions of these speech act components.
The ethnographer (one who
wants to describe a culture) would like to list all the possible
named speech acts, all the
possible senders, all the possible receivers, all the kinds of codes,
all the named kinds of
message form, all the message channels possible, all the named topics,
etc.
Speech Act (or Communicative Act) Functions
a. sender (speaker)
Identificational
function of the communicative act is
most closely associated
with the sender -- such things as voice set, accent,
intonation, etc. tell receiver
about sender's age, sex, etc.; ie. they identify him or her, and they are generally
involuntary.
Expressive -- choice of words, intonation, etc. express emotions
and attitudes
toward
receiver or other component of speech act.; generally under voluntary control.
b. message channel (could be gestures, whistling, drumming,
speech)
Contact -- physical -
sound hits ears.
psychological - phatic communion (i.e. social contact)
c. message form
Poetic function. Not
limited to poetry, this function is expressed as manipulations
of
and restrictions on message form, and these can be of many different
sorts. Different amounts and varieties
of aesthetic appreciation are derivable from various ways of formulating a
message with any given referential content.
d. topic (what the message is about)
Referential function :most directly associated
with the topic;
closely tied to the dictionary meanings of
messages.
e. code (Signaling
units of which a message is composed –
based on a set of
conventions for communicating meaning).
Metalinguistic function, i.e. information about the code that is
conveyed in a
speech act.
f. receiver –
(hearer, audience)
Directive function
- concerns subsequent activity of the
receiver as
directed by what the speaker says.
(e.g.
"Would you close the door, please?")
Rhetorical function - concerns the receiver's
outlook as it is affected by
what
is said. (e.g. "What a nice
dress.")
g. setting (context)-- (relevant features constituting a specific setting
most often
involve place,
time, and participants of
the speech act)
Contextual function
of the speech act associated with the setting component is
reflected
in messages saying something about the time, place, or persons in
the
interaction. Many linguistic forms
referring to these things cannot be interpreted without reference to the speech
act itself, for their meanings are
not
fixed but relative (e.g. 'me', 'you',
'here', 'there', 'now', 'then')
(e.g.
"It happened yesterday"; "Oh, there you are"). In some cases, the
primary
function of the whole speech act is contextual.
Once we are familiar with the
functions of the speech act we can think of them in a
slightly different way by
referring to them as meanings that can be associated with
the speech act. So in this sense there are at least 9
general kinds of meanings that can
be associated with the speech
act.
Later, Dell Hymes developed
another, model based in part on a mnemonic (SPEAKING)
Making the components easier
to remember. This model, based on the notion
of discourse
seen as a series of speech
acts (themselves components of speech events) with in a situational
and cultural context. This model can be used to examine and
analyze all kinds of discourse.
"Setting refers to the time
and place of a speech act and, in general, to the physical
circumstances" (Hymes, p. 55).The living room in the grandparents' home might be a
setting
for a family story. Scene is the "psychological
setting" or "cultural definition" of a scene,
including characteristics such as
range of formality and sense of play or seriousness
(Hymes 55-56). The family story
may be told at a reunion celebrating the grandparents'
anniversary. At times, the family
would be festive and playful; at other times, serious and
commemorative.
Speaker and audience. Linguists will make distinctions within these categories; for example,
the audience can be distinguished as addressees and other hearers (Hymes 54 & 56). At
the family reunion, an aunt might tell a story to the young female relatives, but males,
although not addressed, might also hear the narrative.
Purposes, goals, and outcomes (Hymes 56-57). The aunt may tell a story about the
grandmother to entertain the audience, teach the young women,
and honor the grandmother.
Form and order of the event. The aunt's story might begin as a response to a toast to the
grandmother. The story's plot and development would have a sequence structured by the
aunt. Possibly there would be a collaborative interruption during the telling. Finally, the
group might applaud the tale and move onto another subject or activity.
Cues that establish the "tone, manner, or spirit" of the speech act (Hymes 57). The aunt
might imitate the grandmother's voice and gestures in a playful way, or she might address
the group in a serious voice emphasizing the sincerity and respect of the praise the story
expresses.
Forms and styles of speech (Hymes 58-60). The aunt might speak in a casual register with
many dialect features or might use a more formal register and careful grammatical
"standard" forms.
Social rules governing the event and the participants' actions and reaction. In a playful story
by the aunt, the norms might allow many audience interruptions and collaboration, or
possibly those interruptions might be limited to participation by older females. A serious,
formal story by the aunt might call for attention to her and no interruptions as norms.
The kind of speech act or event; the kind of narrative, comment, exclamation, etc. The
aunt might tell a character anecdote about the grandmother for entertainment, but an
exemplum as moral instruction. Different disciplines develop terms for kinds of speech acts,
and speech communities have their own terms for types.
These terms provide a structure facilitating your perception of the elements / components of
the speech act. In some cases you might emphasize only one or two of the letters in the
mnemonic (SPEAKING).
For more information, see:
Hymes, Dell. Foundations of
Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach.
Philadelphia: U
of Pennsylvania P, 1974.