Linguistic Approaches to Literature - Assignment 9 James Madison University

Instructions: This assignment should be done after you do the reading for our next class. It requires an attempt to work with certain restricted aspects of "speech act theory" that are discussed in that reading. [This assignment will be marked only as an acceptable or unacceptable effort.]

1. After (re-)reading "Talk and Action," attempt to analyze the "speech acts" in a very small conversational exchange between friends, an advertisement, a couple lines of dialogue from a TV show, etc.) More specifically, use John Searle's distinctions between the locution of an utterance (ie. it's basic "word meaning"), the illocution (illocutionary act/force) associated with it, and the subsequent perlocutionary force of that utterance (if that is made clear in the context). Also note how direct or indirect the connection is between the locution and the illocutionary force of each utterance -- in other words, look at what context is needed to derive each intended illocutionary act. Submit a copy of the conversational exchange you examined along with your analysis.