Talk Shows from Around the World

Speech Acts

• There is no set of speech acts and no set of strategies for performing speech acts such that all languages and cultures share them
• Example: saugandh khaanaa – Hindi for ‘to swear’
• Doesn’t carry negative meanings
• Can swear by anything valuable
• ‘…and Ramu,’ she cried desperately, ‘I have enough of quarrelling all the time. In the name of our holy mother, can’t you leave me alone!’

Speech Acts

• Speech acts are interpretable only in the context of a society or culture
• Indian languages: Elders may bless a child instead of saying ‘thank you’ for rendering a service.
• Taiwanese Mandarin: uses a more direct strategy for making requests than SAE
• Igbo: Silence is the appropriate way to express sympathy to the bereaved following a death.

The Cooperative Principle & Implicature:

• A. "Is that the phone?"
• "I'm in the tub."
• B. "Uncle Charlie is coming over for dinner."
• "Better lock up the liquor."
• C. "Do you know where Bill moved?"
• "Somewhere on the east coast."
• D. "How was your blind date?"
• "He had a nice pair of shoes."
• E. "Professor Smith is sure he'll get tenure."
• "And my pet turtle is sure it will win the Kentucky Derby."

Grice’s Cooperative Principle

• To describe in a systematic and consistent way how implicature works in conversation, Grice proposed the cooperative principle:
• In conversations, participants cooperate with each other.
• They do this by observing the conversational maxims.

Grice’s Four Conversational Maxims

• Quantity - contribution should be as informative as required
• Quality - contribution should not be false
• Relation - contribution should be relevant
• Manner - contribution should be direct