Post on 21-Apr-2023
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Prepared by: Moulay Omar HidayaDr. Hussein Obeidat
(2014300062)
Outline:
1. Introduction : speech acts theory and the analysis of
discourse……………………..3
2. Lit Review …………………………………………………………………………………………………………4
3. Section One: Speech Acts………………………………………………………………………………….5
1. The theory of speech acts……………………………………………………………………………...5
2. Loction/ illocution/perlocution……………………………………………………………………..6
3. Direct/indirect speech acts…………………………………………………………………………….8
4. Section Two: Apologies…………………………………………………………………………………..10
1. Apologies as speech acts…………………………………………………..10
2. Why requesting an apology…………………………………………….....11
3. Apologies across Languages………………………………………………11
5. Section three: Study of Apologies as Speech
Acts…………………….12
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1. Problems and aims of the study………………………………………….12
2. Subjects…………………………………………………………………..12
3. Instruments……………………………………………………………….13
4. The situations translated into
Arabic…………………………………….13
5. Discussion………………………………………………………………..13
6. Results……………………………………………………………………16
6. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..17
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Introduction:
Any study of discourse or communication should take into
account the concept of speech acts as being major parts of
everyday conversations. Vanderveken(1994,53) argued that
“speakers perform their illocutionary acts within entire
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conversations where they are most often in verbal
interaction with other speakers who reply to them and
perform in turn their own speech acts with the same
collective intention to pursue with success a certain type
of discourse”
Apologies as types of speech acts is a valuable topic that
deserves the study, in a sense that this face threatening
act is a very difficult thing for people to do . It is also
said that:"Sorry is the hardest word". This is not because
it is hard to pronounce or spell, but because you have to
admit that you have done something wrong. While, the
important thing is that when someone apologizes, it does not
mean that they were wrong or the other person was right, but
in fact, it means that the relationship between both parts
is valuable than the ego of the apologizer.
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Lit Review:
The common traditional philosophical assumption points that
a sentence can be judged in terms of describing some states
of affairs or facts, which can be analyzed in terms of truth
and falsity (Austin 1962, 1). In other words, logical
positivist philosophers argue that the only meaningful
statements are those that can be tested empirically in terms
of truth or falsity. In reaction to this assumption, Austin
believed that language conveys more than the meaning of its
words and phrases i.e. we not only use language to say
things (make statements), but also to do things (perform
actions).
For example:
Can we judge these following utterances in terms of truth or falsity?
. I apologize
. I name this ship the Albatross
. I bet you $5 it will rain.
The concept of speech acts was first defined by
J.L Austin in his book entitled "How to Do Things with
Words?" published in 1962. Austin never used the term
speech acts but rather "performative sentences" which he
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defined as: "the issuing of the utterance is the performing
of an action"(p6). This expression was first introduced by
Searle (1969) who claimed that "speech acts … are the basic
minimal units of linguistic communication" (p16). The speech
act theory is still a controversial field of study
undertaken by various researchers.
Concerning the concept of "apologies", there were few
studies done in the Arab World including a study of
Jordanian university students' expression of Apology.This
study tried to investigate the common apology expressions
used by Arabic native speakers in different situations,
another study entitled a Socio-pragmatic Study of Apology in
Iraqi Non-standard Arabic that focused on the strategies of
apologizing in Iraqi Arabic, in relation to gender
differences.
SECTION ONE:
1. The theory of speech acts:
People can apologize by saying “I apologize”, thank by
saying “thank you” and promise by saying “I promise”. These
are called performatives.
Performatives are utterances with which we can explicitly
perform our action or what we are doing ,for instance, in
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the suitable circumstances like a wedding ceremony the
father of the bride would say : “I married my daughter to
you”(( ي� ت� ن� ك� اب�� ت� وج�� .which counts as joining a couple in marriage ز�
In these cases there are specific, social norms and
circumstances in which an act can be fulfilled after
uttering certain words.
The theory of speech acts attempts to understand the ways in
which meaning is created in context. It does not refer to
the utterance only, but the whole context, which means that
whenever we say something, we are doing something too. The
prototype of the way of doing things through language is to
utter a performative . By doing so ,we can perform an action
through language.
Utterances that are not performatives also can perform a
speech act but in an indirect way, for example when saying:
“It’s a bit hot here" we can perform the act requesting
(please open the window). We usually choose this less direct
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way because they look like less of an imposition on the
person.
2. LOCUTION/ILLOCUTION/PERLOCUTION
Through speaking, we can perform several acts at once .there
is the act of saying something, what the speaker intends by
saying it and how the speaker is trying to affect the
addressee, these aspects are known as:
A. locutionary act: is the act of speaking (the construction
of speech)and the production of meaningful units in language
(the use of phonemes, morphemes, sentences)
B. Illocutionary: the utterance that attempt to achieve some
communicative purpose like the ones uttered in marrying.
C. Perlocutionary: the effect of speaking on the hearer,
whether intended or not
Examples:
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"Shoot him"!
-The locution: 'SHOOT HIM
-The illocutionary: he/she urged him/her to shoot her-
-the perlocutionary effect: the hearer was either persuaded
by the speech or not and eventually will or will not shoot
It's hot here!"
-The locution: "it is hot here"
- The illocution:"I need fresh air"
-the perlocutionary effect: someone opens the widow
John: "Darling, do you want to go out to the showtonight?"
Laura: "I'm feeling ill."
John: "That's ok. You stay there and I'll make soup."
In this example, Laura didn't respond to John's question
by saying, "No, I don't want to go out to the show tonight."
What she actually said — her locutionary act — was "I'm
feeling ill."
In saying that she feels ill, Laura was telling John that
she doesn't want to go out, which is her illocutionary act
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(intention). Laura's perlocutionary act got John to make her
some soup.
Searle (1976) further classified the illocutionary
act into five categories of communicative functions.
• Representatives: commit the hearer to the truth of the
proposition (e.g. asserting, concluding)
• Directives: The attempt to get the speaker to do something
(e.g., requests, warnings).
• Commissives: The speaker commits him or her to do
something in the future (e.g., promises, offers).
• Expressive: The speaker expresses his or her state of mind
about something that happened in the past (e.g., thanking,
complaining).
• Declarations: The speaker, who has institutional
recognition (e.g., judge or priest), declares something to
be true and in making the declaration makes it true (e.g.,
priest christens a baby).
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3. Direct vs. indirect speech acts:
Direct speech acts:
performed by means of the linguistic structures
which are conventionally used for the performance of a
certain act, requests ;for instance, are performed by
imperative structures:E.g. the speaker does not want the
hearer to stand in front of the TV, so, the speaker says:
"move out of the way!"
We can also perform a direct speech act (explicitly) by
using performative verbs as in the following example:
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Indirect speech acts:
They are performed by means of the linguistic
structures which are conventionally used to perform other
speech
act
verb that names the
speech actexample
Assertio
nAssert
I assert that he washes the
dishes.
QuestionAskI ask who will wash the
dishes.
Order OrderI order you to wash the
dishes.
Request RequestI request that you wash the
dishes.
Promise PromiseI promise that I’ll wash
the dishes.
Advice AdviseI advise you to wash the
dishes.
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speech acts: E.g.: speaker does not want the hearer to stand
in front of the TV, so he /she say:
-"you're standing in front of the TV"
-"do you have to stand in front of the TV?"
-"you'd make a better door than a window"
It is possible to have a strange effect when the addressee
misinterprets the message or fails to understand the
intended act; for instance: A tourist carrying his luggage,
looking lost, stops a passerby:
Visitor: excuse me; do you know where the ambassadors' hotel
is?
Passerby: oh, sure, I know where it is (and walks away).
The passerby answers the question as if it was a direct
speech act, whereas the utterance was an indirect speech act
used as a request for directions.
We use indirect speech acts because they seem more polite
and less of an imposition.
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Section Two:
1. Apologies as speech acts:
Apologies are expressive speech acts, where the Speaker
tries to express his/her regret towards a malicious act. In
order for an apology to be an effective, it should state
true feelings.
Austin points that there are various forms of apologies
(lakoff, 207), among them:
I'm sorry I did X (the speaker's confession of doing
something wrong)
2. I guess I did X (hedges on the speaker's responsibility
for the act)
3. I shouldn't have done X (admits that the act was wrong)
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4. You must be pretty mad that I did X (the addressee was
hurt)
5. I was a real jerk to do X (the speaker is ashamed)
And I'll never X again (promising that the act won't happen
again)
He also proposed four conditions that make an apology
felicitous (successful):
1. Propositional content: past act X done by a speaker
2. Preparatory condition: speaker believes that act X is an
offense against hearer
3. Sincerity condition: speaker regrets X
4. Essential condition: speaker offers an apology
2. Why request an apology?
• To acknowledge how you were hurt
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• To confirm that the other person accepts responsibility
• To make sure it won’t happen again
• To reconcile the relationship
• To restore your reputation
3. Apologies across languages
In English
I would like to apologize.
It was my entire fault.
Please, forgive me for my mistake
Please can you accept my humblest apology?
In French:
Pardon !
Excuse-moi !
Je suis vraiment désolé!
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veuillez m'excuser
In German
Entschuldigung(excuse me)
Das tut mir leid! (I'm sorry)
Verzeihung! (Forgiveness!)
Section Three: strategies of apologizing used by
Four Algerian Female English Students at Yarmok
University.
1. Problems and aims of the study:
This study aims to investigate the use of apologies
by Algerian female studentsof English; it tries to explore
the different strategies and expressions of apologies. This
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study tries to find out when do they apologize? How do they
apologize? And what are the expressions they use?
2. Subjects:
The participants are four Algerian female students of
English at Yarmok University who are native speakers of
Algerian Arabic. Their ages range from 22 to 23 years
old.
3. Instrument and Procedures :
The apology instrument used consisted of five situations in
which the subjects need to deliver an apology.
4. The situations translated into English:
1. You wanted to call your friend, but you called the wrong
number, what are you going to do?
2. You have eaten your friend's chocolate, will you apologize
for that?
3. In a restaurant, you were served uncooked meat, what will
you say?
4. In a bus, you stepped on somebody's toes, what will you say
to him?
5. You entered class late, what are you going to say to your
teacher?
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5. discussion:
Responses to situation 1:
6. You wanted to call your friend, but you called the wrong
number, what are you going to do?
I SAY SORRY AND I EXPLAIN TO HIM THAT IT WAS JUST A
MISTAKE.
sorry I dialed the wrong number !
wrong number, forgive me
forgive me, wrong number
In this situation, two girls said sorry and give explanations and excuses about
what they have done wrong .Whereas the remaining two asked for forgiveness.
The speaker is not necessarily used when the person is apologizing; in fact, they
are requirements of the context (In order to be polite)
Responses to situation 2:
You have eaten your friend's chocolate, What would you say?
I THOUGHT YOU DON'T WANT IT
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I APOLOGIZE OF COURSE.
I won't apologize
I say sorry because I ate something that is not mine
In this situation, two girls said sorry, and one girl
points that she would not apologize mainly because the
person affected by the act is a friend. While, the fourth
girl preferred giving explanations or presuppositions (I
thought you don't want it).
Responses to situation 3:
In a restaurant, you were served uncooked meat, what will
you say?
I start complaining about the bad service and ask for a
reward !
I WILL ASK HIM WHAT IS THE PROBLEM.IF IT IS A MISTAKE AND IFHE WILL BRING ME ANOTHER DISH OK.IF NOT I WILL SAY NOTHING I
WILL PAY BUT I WILL NEVER COME AGAIN TO THA RESTAURANT.
Sorry, but the meat is uncooked
Can I get another piece, it's uncooked
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In this case only one girl apologized to the waiter and
complained about the food politely, whereas, the others
prefer to complain about the service directly,
Responses to situation: 4
In a bus, you stepped on somebody's toes, what will you say
to him?
I AM SO SORRY I HAVE NOT SEEN YOU .SORRY AGAIN
excuse me please ! I didn't mean to do that
Forgive me I didn't see you
Forgive me, it wasn't on purpose
In this case, the four girls apologized and gave
explanations, because this action is always seen as an act
that happen very frequently and always perceived as accident
deserves forgiveness by the addressee.
Responses to situation: 5
You entered class late, what are you going to say to your
teacher?
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SORRY SIR
SORRY FOR BEING LATE
I'm sorry for being late!
Sorry , I couldn't find a taxi …etc
Usually, in this situation an apology is always required in
addition to excuses of why being late, that is what all
participants agreed upon.
7. Results:
After analyzing the data, I found that the participants
always tend to apologize to strangers (the person in the
bus, the one called on the phone) and ask forgiveness and
people of higher social status (teacher). In contrast,
with their intimate friends they rarely apologize when
doing something wrong, but rather they only give
explanations and reasons for doing so.
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The expressions of apology given by the participants are:
مي�رو !اس�محلي� ي� ال�ن� ي� ف� لطت� اغ�� Forgive me, wrong number!
ا وي�� خ�� ي�اس�محلي� ت� لي%� اج�� �ي� /اس�محي� ن* لعا ي�/ ي� م�اش0 ،Forgive me brother/sister it wasn't on purpose!
/ كش0 ي� ف� ش�0 م�ا ي� ت� اج�� ا وي�� خ�� س�محلي�Forgive me I haven't seen you!
/ / اذ� اس�ي� خ� ي� س�0 دي�اس�محلي� س�ي�
Forgive me sir!
It is important to clarify that the word {SMA7LI محلي� ي�=س%%%� ام�حت� س%%%� }
is used when asking forgiveness, and also to say sorry.
Because the word (AASIF ( ف� does not exist in Algerian =اش%%%%�Arabic, sometimes they borrow the equivalent of (AASIF) from
French ;( désolé)
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Conclusion:
J. L. Austin outlined his Theory of Speech Acts and the
concept of performative language, in which to say something
is to do something. I.e. regardless the phatic function of
language, whenever we speak, in fact, we act. This paper
highlighted the field of speech acts briefly in its first
section. Whereas, the focus was on apologies as types of
speech acts in its second part, by describing the different
expressions of apologies used by four female Algerian
students of English at Yarmok University.
Future researchers would extend this simple study to a
larger number of participants, or to study Algerian male
students' strategies and expressions of apologizing and
compare the results to that of the females.
In my opinion, people tend to apologize more even if they do
not mean it when the act is not done on purpose; it is
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actually part of their everyday lives. In contrast, when the
act is intended, apologizing becomes much harder.
References:
Al-Sobh, M., An Analysis of Apology as a Politeness
Strategy Expressed by
Jordanian University Students. International Journal of
Humanities and Social Science Vol. 3 No. 2 [Special Issue – January 2013]
Austin, J. (1962). How to do things with words.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Bataineh, R., & Bataineh, R. (n.d.). Apology strategies
of Jordanian EFL university students. Journal of
Pragmatics, 1901-1927.
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DEMETER, G. (2000). A Pragmatic Study of Apology
Strtegies in Romanian (Master's Thesis
Rojo, L. (2005). “Te quería comentar un problemilla…”
The Speech Act of Apologies in Peninsular Spanish: A
pilot study. Hipertexto 1 Invierno, 1, Pp. 63-80.
Saeed, J. (1997). Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Searle, J. (1969). Speech Acts. An Essay in the Philosophy of
Language. Cambridge
Yule, G. (1985). The study of language: An
introduction. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire: Cambridge
University Press.