Chapter 5: Speech Acts Flashcards
Locution
Form of an utterance.
Illocution
An utterance’s function as a speech act.
Performative verbs
Verbs that express the Illocution of an utterance.
Direct speech acts
Utterances that contain a performative verb in the present tense, have a first person subject and, if needed, a second person representing the addressee.
Indirect speech act
Utterances that are not direct speech acts.
Felicity conditions
Conditions an utterance must satisfy in order to function well in a given context and situation as a question, request or order, which are different for each of these types of speech acts.
Focus
The informative part of a sentence.
Information structure
When there is a connection between the sentence structure and the informative structure.
Topic
The sentence element that presents known information.
Social meaning
The way in which language is used.
Pragmatic appropriateness
When to use what kind of language.
Speech acts
Utterances uttered by speakers.
