Research Methods in Translation and Interpreting Studies

Speech Acts

Speech Acts

Pragmatics “the study of the purposes for which sentences

are used, of the real world conditions under which a sentence may be appropriately used as an utterance” (Stalnaker 1972:380)

Speech Acts

Basic Unit of LanguageNot word or sentenceThe act which a person performs by using

words and sentences

Speech Acts

“Besides the question that has been very much studied in the past as to what a certain utterance means, there is a further question distinct from this as to what was the force, as we call it, of an utterance. We may be quite clear what ‘Shut the door’ means, but not yet at all clear on the further point as to whether as uttered at a certain time it was an order, an entreaty or whatnot. What we need besides the old doctrine about meanings is a new doctrine about all the possible forces of utterances” (Austin 1970:251).

Speech Acts

Locutionary act The act of saying something, using the sound, grammatical

and semantic systems of the language (close the door) Illocutionary act

The act performed in saying something. The act identified by an explicit performative (he urged me to close the door)

Perlocutionary act The act performed by or as a result of saying something

(non-linguistic) (he persuaded me to close the door)

Speech Acts

Example: I mention to a friend that I’m thinking of resigning. His response might be analysed as follows:

Act (A) or Locution He said to me, “This is not a good idea, because it’s difficult to get a good job

elsewhere”.

Act (B) or Illocution He advised me against leaving my current job.

Act (C.a) or Perlocution He persuaded me not to resign.

Act (C.b) He brought me to my senses. He annoyed me by his comments.

Speech Acts

SearleDirect Speech Acts Indirect Speech Acts

An illocutionary act is performed indirectly Can you pass the salt (question/request)

Speech Acts

Searle’s Felicity Conditions (illocutionary) Propositional content condition (Propositional content

or conventional meaning) Sincerity condition (speaker’s mental state) Essential condition (what the utterance is meant to

count as) Preparatory conditions (situational preconditions)

Speech Acts

Difficulties Speech Acts pose in translation and interpretingWhen force departs from conventional sense

(locutionary force)When the ultimate effect defies expectations

based on the locutionary and illocutionary force (perlocutionary force)

Speech Acts

StrategiesTranslator attempts to re-perform locutionary

and illocutionary acts (Blum-Kulka 1981)Bourne 2002

Report verbs Strengtheners/weakeners Addition (compensation) Pre-empting TT readers perception of ST characters

(Britishness)

Speech Acts

InterpretingTunisian minister example

“This matter concerns the Saudis” (Hatim & Mason 1997)

Speech Acts

Criticism of Speech Act TheoryNeglects naturalness of language use

(differentiation between different types of illucutionary force)

A single utterance will often perform several acts simultaneously

Single act does not have to be limited to the sentence

Use of ‘de-contextualised’ sentences

Speech Acts

Beyond the single speech act Illocutionary structure (Ferrara 1980)

Interpretation of speech acts depends on their position and status within a sequence

Text act Contribution of local sequences of speech acts to a

global sequence encompassing the entire text (Horner 1975)

Speech Acts

Findings Illocutionary value of Argumentative texts

Problem section ‘assertive’ Solution section ‘directive’

Indeterminancy of individual speech acts Can be resolved by reference to global

organisation of text

Speech Acts

Findings (cont.) Irony (Pelsmaekers & Van Besien 2002)

Shifts in ironic cues in subtitling Increase in overt criticism, explicitness and loss of

ambiguity