PAPER

Accomplished for
PRAGMATIC Subject
Lecturer: SUHARSONO, Ph.D

Compiled by

ACKYTOFFVUXOMI
Registration Number : 157835446

POSTGRADUATED PROGRAM
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE EDUCATION
THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF SURABAYA
2016
1. Introduction

Pragmatic is concerned with study of how people interact when using

language. Pragmatic is the study of meaning as communicated by a
speaker (or writer) and interpreted by listener (or reader). We can say
pragmatic is the study of speaker meaning.
Pragmatic is the study of contextual meaning. This type is study
necessarily involves the interpretation of what people mean in a particular
context and how the context influences what is said.
Pragmatic is the study of how more gets communicated than is said.
This approach also necessarily explores how listeners can make inferences
about what is said in order to arrive at an interpretation of speakers
intended meaning.
Pragmatic is study of the expression of relative distance. This
perspective then raises the question of what determines the choice between
the said and the unsaid. The basic answer is tied to the notion of distance.
On the assumption of how close or distant the listener is, speakers
determine how much needs to be said. And we can say that pragmatics is
the study of how people interact when using language.

1. Speech Act
Action performed via utterances are generally called speech acts and,
in English, are commonly given more specific labels, such as apology,
complaint, compliment, invitation, promise, or request. The action can be
quite pleasant with the specific labels are:
a. Youre so delicious. = the compliment perform
b. Youre welcome = the acknowledgment thanks
c. Youre crazy = the expression of surprise
The action performed by producing an utterance will consists of three
related acts. The first is a locutionary act, the second is a illocutionary act,
and the third is a perlocutionary act.
1.1 Locutionary Act
The first is a locutionary act, which is the basic act of utterance or
producing a meaningful linguistic expression. If you have difficulty with
actually forming the sound and words to create meaningful utterance

in a language, then you might fail to produce a locutionary act. It

means that speaking/writing a grammatical utterance or literal
meaning.
e.g. 1. Ive just made some coffee.
2. Theres a bull in this field.
Both of them are the act but just saying it.
1.2 Illocutionary Act,
The second is a illocutionary act, which is performed via the
communicative force of an utterance. The extra meaning of the
utterance produce on the basis of its literal meaning. It means that the
action is intended by the speaker.
e.g. 1. Ive just made some coffee.
2. Theres a bull in this field.
Both of them are the act force of an utterance as a warning.
1.3 Perlocutionary Act.
The Third is a perlocutionary act, which is simply create an utterance
with a function without intending it to have an effect. Depending on the
circumstances, you will utter on the assumption that the hearer will
recognize the effect you intended. It means that the effect intended by
the speaker.
e.g. 1. Ive just made some coffee. = hearer predict that coffee for
them, hearer order that coffee.
2. Theres a bull in this field. = hearer frightened, hearer avoids
going into the field.
Both of them are the act effect of an utterance.

2.

Illocutionary Force Indicating Device (IFID)

The most obvious device for indicating the illocutionary force (the
Illocutionary Force Indicating Device, or IFID) Is an expression of the type
where there is a slot for a verb that explicity names the illocutionary act
being performed. Such a verb can called a performative verb (Vp) shown in
this example:
1. explicit performative:

I order you to clean your boots.

2. implicit performative:
Clean your boots!
In the preciding examples, clean would be the performative verbs
and , if stated, would be very clear IFIDs. Speaker do not always perform
their speech acts so explicity, but sometimes describe the speech act being
performed. This is other IFIDs which can be identified are word order,
stress, and intonation.
The subject must be first person sg., + the adverb hereby, indicating
that the utterance counts as an action by being uttered + a performative
verb in the present tense + indirect object.
3.

Felicity Conditions
There are utterance to perform a certain act, some appropriate conditions
have to be fulfilled. Technically, they are called felicity conditions. In
everyday context among an ordinary people, there are also preconditions
on speech acts.
1. The General Condition
They can understand the language being used and they are not playacting or being nonsensical and the speaker believes that the action
should be done.
2. The Content Condition
The content conditions of utterance must be about a future event. It
means that a furthermore content condition in the future event will be a
future act of the speaker.
3. The Preparatory Condition
The preparatory conditions that we must think what will happen
with conditions. It is likely that the event will not happen by itself, and
the event will have a beneficial effect. In other case, that isnt clear that
the hearer knows the event will occur, the speaker does think the
event will occur and the event will not have a beneficial effect.
4. The Sincerity Condition

This condition makes the speaker genuinely intends to carry out the
future action have a beneficial effects and the speaker genuinely
believes that the future event will not have a beneficial effect.
5. The Essential Condition
This essential condition thus combines with a specification of what
must be in the utterance content, the context and the speakers
intentions, in order for a specific speech act to be appropriately
(felicitously) performed.
4. Classification of Speech Act
One general classification system lists five types of general functions
performed by speech acts: declarations, representatives, expressives,
directives, and commissives.
4.1 Declarations: speech acts that change the world via their utterance.
4.2 Representatives
For example,
statements of fact (The earth is round)
assertions (Chomsky didnt write about peanuts)
descriptions (It was a sunny day)
In using a representative, the speaker makes words fit the world (of
belief).
5.3 Expressives: speech acts that state what the speaker feels
(psychological states). For e5.xample, expressing pleasure, pain, likes,
dislikes, joy, sorrow, etc. They can be caused by something the speaker
does or the hearer does, but they are about the speakers experience:
E.g.
a. Im really sorry.
b. Congratulations!
c. Oh, yes, mummy, great, mmmm!
In using expressives the speaker makes the words fit the world (of
feeling).
5.4 Directives: speech acts that speakers use to get someone else do
something. They express what the speaker wants. For example,
commands, orders, requests, suggestions, etc. and can be positive or
negative:
E.g.
a. Gimme a cup of coffee. Make it black.
b. Could you lend me a pen please.
c. Dont touch that.
In using a directive, the speaker attempts to make the

world fit the words (via the hearer).

5. Direct and Indirect Speech Act
A different approach to distinguish types of speech acts can be made on the
basis of structure. A fairly simple structural distinction between three general
types of speech acts is provided, in English, by the three general types.
There is an easily recognized relationship between the three structural forms
(declarative, Interrogative, imperative) and the three general communication
functions (statement, question, command/ request).
Direct Speech
- Searle said that a speaker using a direct speech act wants to
communicate the literal meaning that the words conventionally express.
Indirect Speech
- Searle also explained that someone using indirect speech act wants to
communicate a different meaning from the apparent surface meaning, the
form and function are not directly related.
6. Speech Event
A speech event is an activity in which participants interact via language
in some conventional way to arrive at some outcome. It may include an
obvious central speech act.
e.g. I dont really like this. = speech event of complaining
The usefulness of speech act analysis is in illustrating the kinds of
things we can do with words and identifying some of the conventional
utterance forms and identifying some conventional utterance forms we use
to perform specific actions. However, we do need to look at more extended
interaction to understand how those actions are carried out and interpreted
within speech events.

REFERENCES
Cruse, Alan. (2000). Meaning in Language. An Introduction to Semantics and
Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cutting, Joan. (2002). Pragmatics and Discourse. London: Routledge.
Mey, Jacob L (Ed.). (2009). Concise Encyclopedia Of Pragmatics (Second ed.).
Oxford: Elsevier Ltd.
Ward, Laurence R Horn and Gregory (Ed.). (2004). The Handbook of
Pragmatics. USA: Blackwell Publishing.
Yule, George. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.