Transcript SPEECH ACTS

SPEECH ACTS
Emel Demirci-Özkan Örenli
Cahit Erdi Anlatır
Selin Uygur-Nurşen İnalöz
Özge Soylu-Burak Karagün
SPEECH ACTS
While a language may be used for innumerable
purposes, all languages are capable of at least
three functions;
 To pass on information
 To glean information
 To issue commands
HENCE, WE USE LANGUAGE FOR ANY OF
THESE THREE CORE PURPOSES OF
↘ Asserting something ( declaratives)
 ↘ Asking something ( interrogatives)
 ↘ Commanding something ( imperatives)

WE ENGAGE IN SPEECH ACT, AND WE PERFORM AN
ACT BY MAKING AN UTTERANCE. THESE TYPES OF
SPEECH ACT SEEM TO BE UNIVERSAL TO ALL
HUMAN LANGUAGES.
① Declaratives

─ an assertion

─ a statement made in order to pass on
information
 ↘ The chairman is blocking social interaction
 ↘ You are sitting on the floor
② Interrogatives

─ a request for information, posed as a question
with the intention of gleaning information
 ↘ Why are you sitting on the floor?


↘ Are you sitting on the floor?
③ Imperatives
A command, uttered with the intention of getting
someone to do something.
 ↘ Sit on the floor!

↘ Vote for me!
DECLARATIVES
Presented by Özkan Örenli
Declaratives are usually the least marked sentence type and
are typically used for statements, such as;
 They are swimming.
DECLARATIVES
affirmative
negative
AFFIRMATIVE
 The puppy is playing with a ball.
 The man was standing behind the blue truck.
 The weather is nice.
NEGATIVE
 The puppy is not playing with a ball.
 The man was not standing behind the blue truck.
 The weather is not nice.
Affirmative Declaratives
Affirmative declaratives are typically used for
descriptive speech acts, such as asserting
something, describing something, complaining or
bragging about something, predicting or
promising something, and so on. It is typically the
most frequent sentence type, it is typically the
least restricted in its distribution, and it may
typically combine with all the TMA options of the
language.
Sheko (Afro-Asiatic (North Omotic): Ethiopia)
Tauya (Trans-New-Guinea (Madang): Papua New
Guinea)
NEGATIVE DECLARATIVES
Presented by Cahit Erdi Anlatır
NEGATION
A negation reverses the truth of a Proposition.
The declarative Mary is drinking tea states the
actuality that Mary is drinking tea. If we add a
negative markes we reverse this actuality.
Marry is not drinking tea
 The strategies may differ but all known
languages have a way of forming a Negative
Declarative.

CLAUSAL AND CONSTIUENT NEGATION
This type negates an entire clause, giving a
negative counterpart to an affirmative
declarative, as in ‘Marry is not drinking tea’
 A constiuent negation negates only a particular
constiuent in the clause, such as NP negation as
in No tea could be found, where the negative NO
only refers to the NP tea and not to the entire
clause.

Negative Pronouns
Nothing could be found
 Hiçbirşey bulunamadı
 Nobody can do that

Negative Adverbs
Marry never drinks tea
 Aslı asla çay içmez

 The
negation can have different scope over the
sentence. Scope essentially refers to that
section which is affected by the meaning of
particular form. In English scope over
everything that comes after it.
Compare :
1) I deliberately didn’t step on the snail
2) I didn’t deliberately step on the snail
in the first sentence it was a conscious and
premedicated act to not to step on the snail but
in the second one I did step on the snail but
the act was accidential.
 In
all known languages clausal negation is
realized through morpholgy one way or another.
As Dryer indicates that ‘there are no known
istances of languages in which negation is realized
by a change in word order or by intonation and all
languages have negative morphemes’. Languages
tend to have either negative particles or negatives
affixes such as English with the particle not or
Gaagudju with the particle gaayu. This strategy
is spread all over the world.
Gaagudju (Australian: Australia)
gaayu i – n –yii- ngi
neg
3I-IRR-go-past
‘he didn’t go’

The second largest group in Dryer’s database forms
negative declarative sentences by way of a negative
affix. This is also a strategy spread all over the world,
except in the largely isolating Southeast Asian
languages. Chichewa is an example of such a
language, with its negative prefix si- or –s if it
precedes a vowel.
Chichewa (Niger,Congo,Bantoid:Malawi,Mozambique
Mkângo s- ú -ku-wá-pwhwány-a
maûngu
III.lion Neg-III.SM-PRES-VI.OBJ-smash-FV
VI.pumpkins

The remaining types of strategies all make up
proportionally rather smaller groups of languages. In
Dryer’s sample the negative declarative is formed
through a type of auxiliary verb which inflects for
person and number in the same way as other
auxilaries. Finnish is an example of such a language,
as shown in repeated here for convenience.
Finnish (Uralic (Finnic):Finland
en
tule
kotilin
Neg.1SG come home.ILL
 In
the auxilary en is inflected for person and
number, in this case first person singular.
While this is a comparatively rare strategy,
languages with auxilary verb negatives are
found in most parts of the world, but are
especially prominent northern Eurasia in a
belt stretching from Finland to the Russian far
East, along the North American Pacific coast
and in a cluster in Central Africa. Auxilary
verb negatives are completely absent in
Australia, Europe (except for Finland) and the
Middle East in Dryer’s sample.
In 73 languages, clustered mainly in West
Africa,Southeast Asia and the South Pacific Islands, it is
not possible to determine if the negator is an Auxilary or a
particle. For example, if a language has little or no
mophology and the verb carries no inflection, a negative
word may be an auxilary without any inflection (just like
the other verbs) but it may also be a particle. In Tinrin, for
example, the negative is not inflected but neither is the
verb.
Tinrin: (Austronesian (Oceanic): New Caledonia
nrâ see trò
warra nrâ toni
3.SG NEG arrive yet SM PN
In cases like this example it is not possible to determine
wheter the negative word see should be considered a
particle or auxilary verb although for some languages
there might be syntactic criteria that indicate how the
negative is best classified.

A
small group of 21 languages found in all
parts of the world in Dryer’s sample have both
a negative affix and a negative word. In
Orokaiva negation is expressed with the suffix
–ae except for those clauses that are in the
future tense or habitual aspect, for which the
particle mane is used
Orokaiva (Trans-New Guinea (Binanderean):
Papua New Guinea
na pamb-ae
na mane pamba -so- n- a
1sg-go-neg
1sg-NEG go-FUT-1.SGIND
DOUBLE NEGATION
French (Indo-European)
Je ne veux pas manger
1.sg-Neg-want-Neg-eat
 Nous ne voulons pas
aller
1.PL-NEG-want-NEG-go
Makaa (Niger-Congo
(Bantoid
mӘ â-câl-έ
mӘ-l Әndú

Finally 120 languages in
Drayer’s sample have
double negation,i.e. Two
negative simultaneous
morphemes
 In Makaa this double
negation is expressed
through the parafix a...(H) –έ and high tone on
the verb stem

Another secondary strategy in negative declaratives
may be change of word order as in Lokaa where
affirmative declaratives are typically SOV
Lokaa (Niger-Congo(Cross River):Nigeria
Úbi ó-kpèèyi
kò-póó
PN
I.AGR-sell XI-cup
S
V
O
Ubi sold
a
cup
Úbi
kò-póó
òó-kpèèyi
PN
XI-cup
NEG-I.AGR.-sell
S
O
V
Ubi didn’t sell a cup
Notice that the tone of the verb stem -kpèèyi ‘sell’
remains the same in both sentences. The negative
affects the word order not the tone


Another secondary effect of negation may be the
number of TMA distinctions allowed; in languages
where TMA distincitions are affected by negation,
there are typically fewer distinctions in the negative
than the affirmative.
In Burmese the punctual aspect and the realis/irrealis
modal distinctions are lost in the negative
a.
Thu yau’ pi
d. Tin hpei a ye’ ma-thau’
hpu:
3sg reach PUNCT
PN liquor NEG-drink
NEG
(S)he has arrived
Tin Pe doesn’t drink liquor.
b.
Thu ma-yau’ hpu:
e. Thu pyo: ma-la
3.SG NEG-arrive NEG
3sg speak IRR-Q
(S)he hasn’t arrived
Will (S)he speak?
c. Tin hpei a ye’ thau’ tha-la f. Thu ma-pyo: hpu:
PN liquor drink R-Q
3.sg NEG-speak-NEG
Does Tin Pe drink liquor ?
(S)he won’t speak
The punctual aspect in (a) as well as the realis and irrealis
mood in (c and e) respectively are all neutralized with the
negative as can be seen in (b,d and f)


These secondary strategies are what may be called
asymmetric negations. In symmetric negations ‘ the
structure of the negative is identical to the structure of
the affirmative, except for the presence of the negative
markers’ while in asymmetric negations the structure
differs from the affirmative one way or another.
English is an example of a language classed with
emphatic sentences. Sentences like He has eaten
versus He has not eaten exhibit symmetric negation.
However; asymetry is exhibited with respect to the
distinction between emphatic and non-emphatic
sentences which is lost in negation.
INTERROGATIVES
Presented by Selin Uygur
INTERROGATIVES
 All
languages have some way of gleaning
information, that is, of forming interrogatives
with the purpose of extracting information.
Interrogatives may take the shape of
different kinds of questions. If the
information sought after is merely
comfirmation or disconfirmation of the truth
value of an utterance, we form polar
questions. If we need more elaborate
information, we form content questions.
Will you come home today
 When will you come home

Polar questions
Content question
POLAR QUESTIONS


With polar questions the expected answer is typically
Yes or No although there are usually a few other
alternatives available such as Perhaps. Most
languages have specific strategies for forming polar
questions.
Languages have a distinct intonation pattern for
polar questions. Often a polar question has a rising
intonation, as in case in English (For example you are
listening to yourself first saying You are home then
Are you home?) But, this is not a universal. Hawai’i
Creole English, for example, has a falling intonation
for polar questions. These types of languages are
spread over the world. Italian is an example of such a
language
Italian (Indo-European)
 Laura viene
con
noi
(statement)
 PN
come 3SG. Pres. IND with 1PL
 ‘Laura is coming with us.’
 Laura viene
con noi
(question)
 PN
come.3SG.PRES.IND with 1PL
 ‘Is Laura coming with use?’
(source:
personal knowledge)

Additionally intonation as a strategy is
underrepresented in Dryer’s map since a language has
only coded for that strategy if there are no other
grammatical means for forming a polar question in the
language. However in some languages, intonation may
be the most common means of indicating a polar
question, but if some other method is used a minority
of the time, then the language is shown on the map
according to that method. It is common for languages
to combine intonation with any of the strategies
discussed below.
 Quite rare strategy for marking polar questions is
through change of word order. Swedish is an example
of a language that employs inverted word order to form
polar questions.

Swedish (Indo- European (Germanic): Sweeden)
a) han
kommer
3SG.M
come.PREs
‘He is coming.’
b) kommer han
come.PRES 3SG:M
‘Is he coming?’
 A very rare strategy indeed is to mark polar questions
through the absence of a declarative marker. For
example;
Puquina
a) cuhana-qu-ench
b) cuhana-pi
believe-1S.SG-DECL
believe-2S
‘I believe.’
‘Do you believe?’
In the obligatory declarative marker -(e)nch/-(a)nch suffixes to
the verb, while in the absence of this marker indicates that
the utterance is a polar question.
A rather more common strategy is to have a special verbal
inflection signalling the polar question. Korean is an
example of such a language with its question marker suffix
–ni or –nyi.
 Korean
pi ka
o-ni/o-(nu)-nyi
rain NOM come-Q/come-IND-Q
‘Is it raining?’
 The
by far most common strategy in Dryer’s
database is to have question particles, which
may either be a free particle or a clitic added to
the declarative sentence. For example;
Ainu
pirka-p ne ya
rich-person be Q
‘Is (he) a rich person?’
In the particle ya signals that the utterance is a
question. In Ainu this particle sentence final. This is
the most common pattern for languages with question
particles. Also, question particles may be sentence
initial. Question particles or clitics may in other
positions in the sentence. Languages may have tag
questions which can be seen as a type of question
particle but “contribute a certain bias by raising
expectations toward either positive or negative
answer”. English has tags where the negative tag
presupposes a positive answer and a positive tag a
negative answer:
a) You do know it, don’t you? (Expected answer: Yes I
do.)
b) You don’t know it, do you? (Expected answer: No, I
don’t.)

Tags tend to occur at the end of the sentence irrespective of
the basic word order of the language. They are sometimes
considered a shortened version of a different strategy, the
disjunctive-negative structure, also known as ‘A-not-Aconstruction.’ For example;
Mandarin
Ta chi-bu-chi pingguo
3SG eat-not-eat apple
‘Does she/he eat apples?’
In the polar question is formed by giving the verb (chi
‘eat’) twice, once positive and once negated. It may be
that tags originate from A-not-A constructions and
that question particles in turn originate from tags and
the A-not-A construction. However, some languages
use the A-not-A construction together with a question
particle.
Turkish
Ahmet sinema-ya git-ti
mi git-me-di mi
PN
cinema-DAT gopast Q go-NEG-PAST Q
‘Did Ahmet go to the
cinema (or didn’t he)
 In Turkish the A-not-A
construction is optional
and when used,
combines with the
question particle.

A few languages in Dryer’s
database to be exact, have
both question particles and
an interrogative suffix –a
which may either occur
alone or together.

Kashmiri
(k’a) tsi gatsh-kh-a: paga:h
gari

Q 2SG go-2SGPS-Q tomorrow
home
‘Will you go home tomorrow?’
One single language in Dryer’s database, Chalcatongo
Mixtec lacks any kind of differentiation between
statements and polar questions.

Chalcatongo Mixtec
 naba?a=ro libru=ro
 have=2
have=2
 ‘You have your book’/ ‘Do you have your book?’
 The utterance can be interpreted either as a statement
or a question; there is no overtmarking and no
intonational difference between meanings.

CONTENT QUESTIONS
Presented by Nurşen İnalöz
CONTENT QUESTIONS
Content questions contain an interrogative phrase
and demand a specicic answer containing other
information than just a confirmation or
nonconfirmation. In other words, a simple Yes or
No is not an adequate answer to a content
question.
An example of a content question is;
 What are you reading?
Where the answer would have to give specific
information, such as, ‘Shakespeare’ or something
similar.

An interrogative phrase may consist of only a
question word, for example, ‘what are you
reading?’but may also consist of more than that
‘which book are you reading now?.

The interrogative phrase replaces the constituent
asked about, thereby indicating what kind of
information is being requested. For example;

John read the book, in a corresponding content
question, replaced by the interrogative phrase who
.who read the book?

The interrogative phrase in English is by default in
sentence initial position, leaving a gap:

John read [the detective story]ₒ

[what]ₒ did John read -------?

This movement is called ‘ fronting’.

SENTENCE INITIAL POSITION , HOWEVER, SUCH AS DUMI
LANGUAGE, WHERE THE INTERROGATIVE PHRASE IS IN
THE SAME POSITION AS THE CONSTITUENT.
Dumi (Sino-Tibetan (Bodic): Nepal)
A) an-a
mwo:
a-dzi-t-a
2SG-ERG. What
MS-eat-NPST-23S
S
O
V
B) Khi:bi-ɂa aɳ
a-ka:ts-ә
Dog-ERG 1SG
MS-bite-1SG
S
O
V
The question word mwo: ‘what’ in a is an object
and placed in the same position as an object in a
declarative sentence b.
ALL KNOWN LANGUAGES HAVE A SET OF WORDS THAT ARE USED
FOR CONTENT QUESTIONS, BUT NOT ALL LANGUAGES HAVE
SPECIFIC QUESTION WORDS. IN WARI, FOR EXAMPLE, A
CONTENT QUESTION IS FORMED BY PLACING A FORM OF THE
DEMONSRATIVE MA’ IN INITIAL POSITION AND LEAVING A
CORRESPONDING GAP IN THE CLAUSAL SYNTAX.
Wari (Chapacura- Wanhan (Chapacura-Wanhan):Brazil)
ma’
co
pa’ nana hwam pain
that.PROX.HEARER INFL.M/F.RP kill 3PL.RP fish
PREP.3N
S
V
O
b. mam wac ‘ina-on
hwam
pain
quit
INST
cut
1SG.RP-3SM fish
prep.3N knife
V
S
O
LANGUAGES MAY ALSO HAVE INTERROGATIVE VERBS, THAT
IS, VERBS THAT IN THEMSELVES FUNCTION AS A QUESTION
WORD. LAVUKALEVE IS AN EXAMPLE OF SUCH A
LANGUAGE:
Lavukaleve (Solomons East Papuan
(Lavukaleve):Solomons Islands)

me-kalem
vasia-m

2PL-father
be. Where- SG.M

‘Where is your (pl) father?’
The verb vasia ‘be.where’ in this sentence is in itself a
question word, not properly translatable into English,
since English does not have interrogative verbs.

IMPERATIVES
Presented by Özge Soylu
IMPERATIVES








All known languages have some kind of strategy for
expressing directive speech acts or impreatives.speech
acts meant to get addressee to perform some kind of
actions.imperatives are typically used to issue;
commands; sit down!
requests:please switch off the light
entreaties: let me try is out!
advices:don’t bike without a helmet!
warnings: watch out for dog!
instructions:stir a spoonful of port in the sauce
wishes: have fun!
Imperatives may be positive or negative,in that the
former directs the addressee towards an action that
sould be done







POSITIVE IMPERATIVES
Positive imperatives usually simply termed
imperatives are used to initate action,ın addition to
the different morphological strategies for marking
imperatives. It sould be noted in some languages such
as Abkhaz make a gender distinction in singular
imperatives. for example;
w-c'a (GO!) male addressee
b-c'a (GO!) female addressee
sw-c'a ( GO!) plural addressee
In Tashihiyt the gender distinction appears in the
plural but not in singular.For example;
du: (GO!) said to one male or female addressee
du-iat: (GO!) said to more than one male addressee
du-iamt:(GO!) said to more than one female addressee







Language may have different imperative markers
depending on aspect, remoteness, distance, directions or
evidientally. Lavukaleve,for example; has two sets of
imperative markers in three numbers,for the perfective
and imperfective aspects respectively.example of
Lavukaleve
perfective
imperfective
singular
va
ma
iru-ma (sleep) IMP.SING
iru-va (sleep) PERF.SING
Languages may have different imperative markers
depending on the evidentiality of the command.In
Triana,for example;an imperative uttered by one person
may be repeated by another person,but then only as a
second hand command.
pi-nha-pida ( eat,you were told to you)
pina di-pasya-da (beware a car,you are walking in the
middle of the road,you can see it)
NEGATIVE IMPERATIVES
Presented by Burak Karagün
NEGATIVE IMPERATIVES
 In
English, we use the word "don't" for
prohibitions, or negative imperatives. For
example:
 Don't do it!
 Don't say that!
Negative Imperative form in Latin:
 In Latin the negative imperative is formed with
two words, the imperative of nolo, nolle and the
infinitive.
 Nolo by itself means "I do not want," but in its
imperative it means "do not...!"
 Nolle is irregular, and its imperative forms
are noli and nolite.


Do not fear me!
 Noli me timere!


Don't wash the dog, boys!
 Nolite, pueri, canem lavare!






Negative Imperative form in French :
When you want to form the negative
imperative form, simply put -ne in front of
the imperative and -pas or an alternative
after it. For example:
Ne va pas au parc. (Don't go to the park.)
Ne mangeons plus de viande. (Let's not eat any
more meat.)
N'oubliez jamais ce que je vous ai dit. (Never
forget what I have told you.)



Negative Imperative form in Spanish :
The imperative mood is a verb conjugation in the
Spanish language that refers to verbs in the
present tense, simple aspect, imperative mood,
and active voice. The Spanish imperative makes
direct commands, expresses requests, and grants
or denies permission.
The conjugation patterns for regular -ar Spanish
verbs in the informal imperative are as follows:
singular informal affirmative – simple present
stem + a – baila
 singular informal negative – simple present
stem + es – no bailes
 plural informal affirmative – simple present
stem + ad – bailad
 plural informal negative – simple present stem
+ éis – no bailéis

Ayúdame. “(You) Help me.”
 No fuméis. “(You all) Don’t smoke.”
 Cantad. “(You all) Sing.”
 No almuerzes. “(You) Do not eat lunch.”

CONCLUSION
Presented by Emel Demirci
DECLARATIVES
↘ AFFIRMATIVE
 ∞ can be marked and unmarked as sentence type
 ∞ can be realis or irrealis propositions and may
combine with dubitative modal markers across
languages. (maybe he is there)
↘ NEGATIVE
 ∞ Clausal negation (you are not listening to me)
 ∞ Constituent negation (no game can be played)
 ∞ Negative pronouns (nothing, nobody)
 ∞ Negative adverbs (you never listen to me)

In all languages, negation is realized by a
change in word order or by intonation, and all
languages have negative morphemes.
INTEROGATIVES
↘ POLAR QUESTIONS
 ∞ have yes or no questions
 ∞ have a rising or falling intonation that
differentiate across languages
 Bizimle geliyor → statement and falling
intonation ↘
 Bizimle mi geliyorsun? → question and rising
intonation↗
 Intonation may be the most common means o
indicating a polar question.
↘ CONTENT QUESTIONS

∞ question-word questions

∞ information questions

∞ wh- questions

All languages have set of words that are used
for content questions, but not all languages have
specific question words. Content question is
formed by replacing a form of the demonstrative.
IMPERATIVES
↘ Positive imperatives

Languages make gender distinctions in the
choice of imperative marker based on the sex on
the speaker, and have different imperative
markers depending on aspect, remoteness,
distance, direction or evidentiality.
 ↘ Negative imperatives ( prohibitives)

All languages express negative imperatives
differently even though they all have a way of
commanding someone not to do something.
Prohibitive is formed by adding the ordinary
negator to the imperative clause, or languages
have a special negator for prohibitives.

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