Week 12

Speech Act Theory

Felicity Conditions
Felicity conditions are the conditions which must be fulfilled for a speech act to be satisfactorily
performed or realized. For a speech act to work, as Austin argues, there are a number of felicity
conditions that must be met. "a sentence must not only be grammatical to be correctly performed, it
must also be felicitous," or well-suited for the purpose.

1. There must be a generally accepted procedure for successfully carrying out the speech act. Also, the
circumstances must be appropriate for the use of the speech act and the person who uses the speech
act must be the appropriate person to use it in the particular context.

For example: In a wedding ceremony a priest might say 'I now declare you husband and wife. In a
launching of a ship the person who has been invited to launch the ship might say 'I hereby name this
ship the Titanic!

2. The procedure must be carried out correctly and completely. Thus, the bride and groom should reply
'I do' (rather than 'Okay, I suppose sd) and the marriage license must be signed.

3. The person must (in most circumstances) have the required thoughts, feelings and intentions for the
speech act to be felicitous. That is, the communication must be carried out by the right person, in the
right place, at the right time and, normally, with a certain intention, or it will not work.

If the first two of these conditions are not satisfied, the act will not be achieved and will misfire. If the
third of these conditions does not hold, then the procedure will be abused.

 Have you ever asked yourself why the words 'I now pronounce you husband and wife' do not
create a legal marriage between two people when uttered in the context of a film set?"
 Of course, the actors in the scene are not really legally married, even if they both say "I do,"
before the thespian justice of the peace or clergyperson recites these words.
 The conditions are not in place and the criteria are not satisfied for this speech act to achieve its
purpose-namely that the "bride" and "groom" enter into a marriage that is legally binding.
 And the person officiating has no legal authority to pronounce the two husband and wife. Thus,
the speech act in the movie marriage scene is not felicitous.
Felicity Conditions (Examples)

Another Example (the Act of warning)

 In a match between two teams, only the referee is the only person who is In a entitled to give a
warning" yellow card" to a player committing a foul. The judge can't do that, nor can the
policeman. (appropriate person)
 Also, the referee can't do that in a restaurant, "only in the playground." (appropriate place)
 Further, he can't do that after the match is finished." only during the match" (Appropriate time)
 Also, the referee has to stop the match, take the player's name and number and then raise the
yellow card. (Appropriate manner/ convention)

According to Searle, the felicity conditions of an utterance are constitutive rules, because they are not
just something that can go right (or wrong) or be abused but something which make up and define the
act itself. That is, they are rules that need to be followed for the utterance to work. Thus, they constitute
the particular speech act.

Searle classifies felicity conditions into 3 types:

1. Preparatory conditions where the authority of the speaker and the circumstances of the speech
act are appropriate to its being performed successfully
2. Propositional content conditions which requires participants to understand language, not to act
like actors.
1. Sincerity conditions that state the requisite beliefs, feelings, and intentions of the speaker, as
appropriate to each kind of action. The speech act is being performed seriously and sincerely.

Preparatory conditions

"I swear to take revenge for my brother's assault." Here the sentence isn't a threat to anybody, but a
promise to the audience.

Propositional content conditions

Grass is green' Says that grass is green. In fact, as a rough gloss, we can say that something has a
propositional content just in case it has a content that can be expressed by a sentence.

Sincerity conditions

1. I intend to do it.
2. I believe I can do it.
3. I will be running for presidential elections this year and I'm going to win it!
Speech Act Classification:

1. Declarations
2. Representatives
3. Expressives
4. Commissives

1-DECLARATIONS: Declarations are kinds of speech act that change the world via utterances. The
speaker has to have a special institutional role, in a specific context, in order to perform a declaration
appropriately.

Example:

a) Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife.

b) Referee: You're out.
c) Jury Foreman: We find the defendant guilty. In using a declaration, the speaker changes the
world via words.

2-REPRESENTATIVES: Representatives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker
believes to be the case or not. Statements of fact, assertions, conclusions, and descriptions are all
examples of the speaker representing the world as he or she believes it is.

Example:

a) The earth is flat.

b) Chomsky didn't write about peanuts.
c) It was a warm sunny day. In using a representative, the speaker makes words fit the world (of
belief)

3-EXPRESSIVES: Expressives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker feels. They
express psychological states and can be statements of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy, or sorrow. They
can be caused by something the speaker does or the hearer does, but they are about the speaker's
experience.

Example:

a. I'm really sorry!

b. Congratulations!
c. Oh, yes, great, mmmm, ssahh! In using an expressive, the speaker makes words fit the
world (of feeling).

4-COMMISSIVES: Commissives are those kinds of speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves
to some future action. They express what the speaker intends. They are promises, threats, refusals,
pledges. They can be performed by the speaker alone, or by the speaker as a member of a group.
Example:

a. I'll be back.
b. I'm going to get it right next time.
c. We will not do that. In using a commissive, the speaker undertakes to make the world fit
words (via the speaker).