Introduction Since pragmatics is a study about the speakers meaning, it must include the contextual aspects which influence

the speakers to speech. Speech act generally represents the contextual aspect which is contained in the speakers utterance. Sentence, which is produced by the speaker is also could be defined as an action where the hearer then can understand the meaning. In spite of that, the interpretation of the hearer could be different according to the external aspects of the hearer. Speech act helps in determining the kinds of both the words produce by the speaker and the influence of the speakers sentence to the hearer. I. Speech Act Speech act is a technical term in linguistics and philosophy of language. A speech act in an act that a speaker performs when making an utterance. There are three kinds of Speech Acts based on Austin (1956), they are: 1. a Locutionary Act : Performing the act of saying something 2. an illocutionary act : Performing an act in saying something 3. a perlocutionary act : Performing an act by saying something Here is the further information about three kinds of Speech Act: 1. A locutionary Act A locutionary Act is an Act of saying something . It is also the performance of an utterance, the actual utterance and its astensible meaning, comprising phonetic, phatic and rhetic acts corresponding to the verbal syntactic and semantic aspects of any meaning fulutterance. For example : Susie is studying Mother is making a cake

Those two sentences are said by the speaker in order to inform something without any tendencies to do something, even to influence the hearer. The locutionary act is the easiest one to analyze in the identification of speech acts since it doesnt include the context of speech. 2. An Illocutionary Act An Illocutionary Act is Performing an act in saying something. An act which the function is to say or inform and also to do something. It is also the semantic 1

illocutionary force of the utterance, thus its real, intended meaning and in certain cases a further perlocutionary act According to Austins preliminary informal description, the idea of an illocutionary act van be captured by emphesaizing thet by saying something, we do something, as when someone else to go by saying Go! or when a minister joins two people in marriage saying , I now pronounce you husband and wife. Example : Marry is Sick David has finished his final assignment

Two examples above are said by the speaker not only as information but also as an action. When someone says Marry is sick to the hearer, he or she is not only giving information about Marrys condition but also an action to ask the hearer not to do something disturbs Marry to take a rest such as not to make any noise. The second example is also said by the speaker not only to inform the hearer that David has finished his final assignments. If this sentence is aimed or said to the last year students, it could be motivate them to finished their final assignments as soon as possible. Generally, the example of illocutionary act are often found in : Greeting : In saying Hi John! Apologizing : Sorry for that! Describing something : It is snowing Asking question: Is it snowing? Making a request and giving an order : Could you pass the salt? And Drop your weapon or Ill shoot you! Making a promise: I promise Ill give it back. An Illocutionary Act is rather difficult to analyzed because we need to know first who the speaker and the hearer are. 3. A Perlocutionary Act A perlocutionary Act is a speech act which is purposed to influence the hearer. A speech which is said by someone sometimes has a perlocution force or effect for the hearer conscious or unconsciously. Perlocutionary act is actual effect, such as persuading, convincing, scaring, enlightening, inspiring or otherwise getting someone to do or realize something, whether intended or not. For example : 2

My mother was sick

If Im saying this sentence today to someone because yesterday I didnt go to her birthday party, it means Im apologizing to her and if she forgives me, her forgiving is a perlocution act of my speech. II. Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices (IFIDs) Searle and Vanderveken (1985) often speak about what they callIllocutionary Force indicating devices (IFIDs). These are supposed to be elements, or aspects of linguistic devices which indicate either that the utterance is made with a certain illocutionary force, or else that constitutes the performance of certain illocutionary act. In English, for example, the interrogative moodsis supposed to indicates that the utterance is a directive illocutionary act (an order, a request, etc). The words I promise are supposed to indicate the the utterance is a promise. Possible IFIDs in English include: word order, stress, intonation contour, punctuation, the mood of the verb, and the performative verbs. III. Felicity Condition In pragmatics, felicity condition is the condition that must be in place and the criteria that must be satisfied for a speech act to achieve its purpose. Several kinds of felicity conditions have been identified, including: An essential condition, whether a speaker intends that an utterance be acted upon by the addressee. A sincerity condition, whether the speech act is being performed seriously and sincerely. A preparatory condition, whether the authority of the speaker and the circumstances of the speech act are appropriate to its being performed successfully.

Conclusion Speech act is an act that speaker performs when making an utterance including: General act illocutionary act that a speaker performs, locutionary and perlocutionary. Locutionary is an Act of saying something, illocutionary is an act in saying something and perlocutionary is a speech produces and effect, intended or not. Whether it is absolute or not, speech act helps determining whether the communication of the speaker and the hearer in pragmatic context getting success or getting failure. References : Levinson, Stephen C.1994. Pragmatics. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press Yule, George.2000. Pragmatics.Oxford:Oxford University Press Argumentics.blogspot.com/2011/01/iwww.hebermas.erg/spchact01.htm www.museumstuff.com/learn/topic/il