Unit 10 Propositions and Illocutions

UNIT 10: PROPOSITIONS AND ILLOCUTIONS
Entry test:
(1) Briefly define what is meant by a directive act.
(2) Give an example of a directive act.
(3) Briefly define what is meant by a commissive act.
(4) Give an example of a commissive act.
(5) Is the sentence I promise to fail you if you do not hand in your essay on time literally used to
promise?
Definition:
SENTENCE MEANING is what a sentence means, regardless of the context and situation in which it
may be used.
UTTERANCE MEANING is what a speaker means when he makes an utterance in a particular
situation.
Practice: Each of the following is a statement from an everyday context in which the word meaning
or means or mean is used. Say whether the statement is about sentence meaning or about utterance
meaning.
(1) A statement by a tourist guide: The inscription above this door, translated into English, means
Those who enter here will live forever.
(2) What did you mean by telling me you’d think twice about lending money to Gary?
(3) When George says that his gun is loaded, he means it as a threat.
(4) I think I understand the literal meaning of what you’re saying, but I can’t see why you should be
saying it to me.
(5) Fred is very understanding; he knows what I mean even though I don’t use the right words to say
it.
(6) No head injury is too trivial to ignore actually, and surprisingly, means the opposite of what you
first think.
Definition: The PROPOSITIONAL CONTENT of a directive illocution can be expressed

by a declarative sentence describing the action that the speaker requires of the hearer.
Practice: Express the propositional content of each of the following directives with a declarative
sentence.
(1) ‘I would like you to feed my cat while I’m on holiday’
You will …..
(2) ‘Forceps!’ (uttered by a surgeon during an operation)
(3) ‘Relax!’
(4) ‘Don’t give up!’
(5) Is it polite or rather impolite to issue a directive with an utterance beginning ‘You will . . .’?
Practice: Give an interrogative sentence corresponding to sentence (1-5) above.
Definition: The PROPOSITIONAL CONTENT of a COMMISSIVE ILLOCUTION can be expressed by a

declarative sentence describing the action which the speaker undertakes to perform.
Practice:
(1) In each of the following cases, give an assertion of the propositional content of the
commissive illocution concerned.
(a) Father promising to buy his son a rubber dinghy when he can swim:
I will …..
(b) Dinner guest, offering to help wash the dinner dishes:
(c) Soldier volunteering to cover his section’s retreat:
(2) For each of the above cases (a)–(c), turn the assertion you gave as answer
into a question.
(3) Could the utterances (assertions) given as answers to (1) (a)–(c) actually be commissive
speech acts (i.e. acts of promising, offering, and volunteering)? (4) Could the
utterances (questions) that you gave as answers to (2) (a)–(c) actually be commissive speech acts?
Directives Commissives
ASSERTION of relatively impolite moderately polite
propositional content
QUESTIONING of relatively polite moderately polite but not propositional content

appropriate in all cases
Practice: If I say to you: ‘Will you turn off the kitchen light?’

(1) What is the direct illocution of the utterance?
(2) What is the indirect illocution of the utterance?
(3) If there are any referring expressions used, list them.
(4) What is the predicate?
(5) In this instance, does the predication apply to a past, present, or future connection between the
objects or persons referred to
Practice: For each of the following utterances, (a) name the most likely illocutionary act being
carried out, (b) say whether the speaker is explicitly referred to, and (c) say whether the hearer is
explicitly referred to.
(1) ‘I am most grateful to you’
(a)
(b) Yes / No
(c) Yes / No
(2) ‘Thank you very much’
(a)
(b) Yes / No
(c) Yes / No
(3) ‘Thanks a lot’
(a)
(b) Yes / No
(c) Yes / No
(4) ‘Go away’
(a)
(b) Yes / No
(c) Yes / No
(5) ‘Please will you pass the sugar’
(a)
(b) Yes / No
(c) Yes / No
(6) ‘I hereby undertake to pay all my debts’
(a)
(b) Yes / No
(c) Yes / No
Practice:
(1) Would it seem reasonable to say that I thank you has as its meaning a proposition, involving two
referring expressions?
(2) What illocutionary act is normally carried out with the utterance ‘Hello’?
(3) Is Hello a declarative sentence?
(4) Would it seem reasonable to call hello a predicate?
(5) What is the negative of I thank you?
(6) Is there a negative of Hello?
(7) Would it seem reasonable to analyse the meaning of Hello as a proposition?
Practice:
(1) What illocutionary act is normally carried out in uttering ‘Hey!’
(2) Would it be reasonable to analyse the meaning of Hey! as a proposition, involving referring
expressions and a predicate
(3) What illocutionary act is normally carried out in uttering ‘Goodbye’?
(4) Would it be reasonable to analyse the meaning of Goodbye as a proposition, involving referring
expressions and a predicate?
Practice: Given below are some further utterances which could also be regarded as using primary
illocution indicators. For each one, state the illocutionary act(s) normally indicated by it.
(1) ‘Bravo!’
(2) ‘Please’
(3) ‘Hi’
(4) ‘Pardon?’
(5) ‘Hooray’
(6) ‘Eh?’

Unit 10 Propositions and Illocutions

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Unit 10 Propositions and Illocutions

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Unit 10 Propositions and Illocutions

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

UNIT 10: PROPOSITIONS AND ILLOCUTIONS

Definition: The PROPOSITIONAL CONTENT of a directive illocution can be expressed

Practice: Give an interrogative sentence corresponding to sentence (1-5) above.

Definition: The PROPOSITIONAL CONTENT of a COMMISSIVE ILLOCUTION can be expressed by a

QUESTIONING of relatively polite moderately polite but not propositional content

Practice: If I say to you: ‘Will you turn oﬀ the kitchen light?’

You might also like