Introduction……………………………………………………....................3
Chapter 1: Speech Act Theory…………………………………...................5
Chapter 2: Indirect Speech Acts in English………………........................10
Conclusion…………………………………………..………................…..15
References……………………………………………..………...................17
INTRODUCTION
Language is an inseparable part of our everyday lives. It is the main tool used to transmit messages, to communicate ideas, thoughts and opinions. It situates us in the society we live in; it is a social affair which creates and further determines our position in all kinds of various social networks and institutions. In certain circumstances we are literally dependent on its appropriate usage and there are moments when we need to be understood quite correctly. Language is involved in nearly all fields of human activity and maybe that is why language and linguistic communication have become a widely discussed topic among linguists, lawyers, psychologists and philosophers.
Basically, we have carried out the present paper based on the works of J. R. Searle, J. L. Austin, P. W. Culicover, S. C. Levinson, G. U. Yule.
The problem of speech acts was pioneered by another American language philosopher J.L. Austin. His observations were delivered at Harvard University in 1955 as the William James Lectures which were posthumously published in his famous book How to Do Things with Words. It is Austin who introduces basic terms and areas to study and distinguishes locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts.
In general, speech acts are acts of communication. To communicate is to express a certain attitude, and the type of speech act that is performed corresponds to the type of attitude being expressed. For example, a statement expresses a belief, a request expresses a desire, and an apology expresses regret. As an act of communication, a speech act succeeds if the hearer identifies, in accordance with the speaker’s intention, the attitude