Today's
Agenda
1. Definitions
of Speech Acts
2. Categorization
Activity
3. Power &
Language
4. Discourse
Analysis
Activity
5. Article
Discussion
Consider the following:
“Philippines says sorry to Taiwan.”
We’re interested in the speech act that the Philippines is making which is the act of apologizing. We’re not interested in the assertion being made by the news company that wrote the headline.
- Atawneh's categorization and selection process
- categorization activity
- Following Searle (1976), put headlines into speech act
categories
- groups of 3 or 4
Discourse Analysis
Commissives
acts whose point is to commit the speaker to some future course of action
Expressives
"Your Majesty. This will be the finest concert I have ever conducted. Your daughters, they will be spectacular!"
-Sebastian (The Little Mermaid)
expresses the psychological state specified in the sincerity condition about the state of affairs specified
"I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior [that] I engaged in"
- Tiger Woods
attempts by the speaker to get
the hearer to do something
Directives
"Bring me the broomstick of the Witch of the West."
- The Wizard (The Wizard of Oz)
Declarations
Representatives
an act whose successful performance brings about the correspondence between the content of the proposition and reality
commit the speaker to something's being the case, to the truth of the proposition
Types of Speech Acts
"So, I guess by the powers vested in me by the state of New York, and the Internet guys, I now pronounce you husband and wife"
-Joey (Friends)
"We may have all come on different ships,
but we're in the same boat now."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
(Searle, 1976)
Categorizing Speech Acts in Media
Power & Language
· Assumption of Atawneh (2008) study: language reflects power
· Words as instruments of power that shape interlocutor?s view of reality
· Searle (1976) also recognizes the influence of power on language (5th dimension)
Types of Speech Acts
Paula & Stephanie
Article Discussion
Where would you put this study in the flow chart of different types of pragmatic research?
Were there any strengths or weaknesses of the author’s methodology that jumped out at you while you were reading the article?
In his study, Atawneh uses critical discourse analysis to look at the relationship between discourse, power, dominance and social inequality in media headlines.
How do you feel about this approach to analysing language? Do you think that adding a socially critical dimension to pragmatic analysis is relevant?
One of Atawneh’s criteria for what constitutes a threat is felicity condition, which means that the speaker of the threat needs to be willing and able to carry out the threat in order for it to be a threat and not a bluff. Atawneh uses hindsight (past history of conflict) to determine whether an act was a threat or a bluff.
Do you see this as being problematic? How does hindsight contribute to interpretation and research?
Questions, Comments.
and
Further Considerations