Speech Acts Tutorial

For each of the following speech acts, indicate (i) the type of speech act, and (ii) its
sincerity condition (expressed psychological state).

Example: Ill help you with your paper tomorrow.

Answer: i. commissive
ii. Intention

Types of speech acts:

commissive making a commitment, such as a promise or threat

directive an official or authoritative instruction
constative denoting a speech act or sentences that is a statement declaring
something to be the case

(a) I will turn my paper in on Friday. (said by student to instructor)

i. commisive
ii. to promise

(b) May I have an extension on the due date for my paper? (asked by student of
instructor)
i. directive
ii. to request

(c) I assign this paper a grade of A. (said by the instructor)

i. constatives
ii. to state

(d) The teacher is supposed to return our papers today.

i. constatives
ii. to inform

(e) Ruths essay is the best in the class. (said by the instructor)
i. constatives
ii. to announce
(f) I will give you until Monday to turn in your papers. (said by the instructor)
i. directive
ii. to instruct

(g) You passed the course. (said by the instructor to the student)
i. acknowledgement
ii. to congratulate

(h) I regret that you failed the exam. (said by the instructor to the student)
i. acknowledgement
ii. to console

(i) Your paper was handed in too late to be considered. (said by the instructor to the
student)
i. constatives
ii. to inform

(j) Your papers are due on Friday. (said by the instructor to the students)
i. constatives
ii. to declare

(k) Congratulations on passing the course. (said by the instructor to the student)
i. acknowledgement
ii. to congratulate

(l) Your papers will be marked down for each day that they are late. (said by the
instructor to the students)
i. commissive
ii. to declare

(m) If you dont start on your papers early, you wont have enough time. (said by the
instructor to the students).
i. directives
ii. to warn/ advise

2. Which speech acts in (1) contain a performative verb?

3. For each of the utterances (a-g), state (i) the syntactic form, (ii) the direct speech act,
and (iii) the indirect speech act.

Example: A man says to his wife, Would you pass the salt?
Syntactic form Direct speech act Indirect speech act
Interrogative asking requesting

a. A mother says to her child, I wish you would finish your dinner.
b. A mother says to her child, Why dont you stop hitting your brother?
c. The hostess says to a guest, Have some candy.
d. A husband says to his wife, Shouldnt we leave soon?
e. You are driving on the QEW and see a sign that says Construction Ahead.
f. You are having a great time chatting with friends at a party. Your wife comes along
and says, Simon, its 11:30.
g. One friend says to another, I wonder if Jerry knows that.