SOCIOLINGUISTICS : TALK AND ACTION

In linguistics, a speech act is an utterance defined in terms of a speaker's intention and the effect it has on a listener. Essentially, it is the actions which the speaker hopes to provoke in their audience. It means that when someone talking with the interlucutor, he/she not use word not only present information but also to carry out actions.

SPEECH ACT

All speech acts as belonging to one of three categories: locutionary, illocutionary, or perlocutionary acts.

Examples:

1.      Locutonary: it is take action to say something The act of locution contains a literal meaning.

 Example:

·         "It's hot here", the meaning of its locus relates to the air temperature in that place.

·         "I am hungry" refers to the 'empty stomach and need to be filled', without intending to ask for food on someone.

2.      Illecutionary : it is making the speaker act in accordance with what he says. This action contains meaning related to social function.

Example:

·         “It is hot here", the meaning of the focus may be a request to open the window.

·         when a husband says "It's almost seven o'clock." To his wife in the morning, here, it is not only giving information about time, also contains the act of reminding the wife that the husband should go to work immediately, so he want to breakfast. Therefore, the wife will answer "Yes baby, breakfast is ready soon”.

3.      Perlocutionary: doing an act by saying something.it have iimpact and there are feedback from interlucutor.

Example:

·         'I'm hungry', listeners react by offering food to speakers.

·         "It is hot here", based on a specific context (hot air, being in a room with windows and doors are closed), then the impact is the window will be opened wide by the interlucutor

CORPORATION

Coorporation that means in communication people need to corporate with others. There are 4 types in coorporation, such as:

1.      Maxim of quality : it means every speaker must convey something true and based on clear evidence.

 Example:

A: How many maxims of cooperation do Grice have?

B: According to Grice's book I read, there are four maxims in the principle of cooperation.

A: What's the maxim?

B: Maximize quantity, maxim of quality, relevance and maxim manner

2.      Maxim of quantity : it is required information only.

Example:

A. The blind man is a masseuse.

B The person who can not see it turns out to be a masseur.

In sentence (A) is considered to be more effective and efficient than (B) which adds things that are obvious and need not be explained again.

Another Example:

A: Rudi put on his raicoat, picked up his umbrella from the table near the door, turned off the lights, put out the cat, got ready for his ten-minute walk to the bus-stop

B: Rudi went out.

In sentence (A) is too long. Therefore, to express the same concept, sentence (B) is better used.

3.      Maxim of relevance : it means that speaker makes a relevant contribution to the topic subject.

Example:

A: There is somebody at the door

B: I'm in the bath.

In that sentence, When A tells B that someone is coming and hopes B to open the door for the guest, then B says that he was in the bathroom at the time. The Answer by B makes A to understand B condition is at that moment. And A will open the door.

4.      Maxim of Manner: it means that speaker is talking directly, not blur, not exaggerated and coherent.

Example:

A: Where is the original, Mas?

B: I am originally Purworejo, Mbak.

A: Ouch, I mean, where is my origins KTP Card?

The dialogue often occurs when (A) photocopy his KTP card at a photocopy place. After the ID card has been photocopied, (A) ask to employee for the original KTP by saying "Mas, where is it?" And it is misinterpreted by (B) because he thinks that (A) asks for his origins. it can be embarrassing moment for interlucutor.

CONVERSATION

Conversations are a series of speech acts: greetings, inquiries, congratulations, comments, invitations, requests, accusations. There are several kinds of conversations:

1. Turn taking and pausing. It means that we are usually don't all talk at once. When we are talking about something maybe the interlucutor not focus or in other activities. So we need to repeat the topic or pause for a while. Ex:

A: Do you know about the accident last night?

B: (silent) typing massage on the phone

A: Can you hear me?

B: (put the phone)  I’m sorry? What are you say before?

2. Adjacency Pairs . sometimes in a conversation there are must be:

a.       Question and answer;

b.      a invitation by an acceptance or an explanation of why it can't be accepted;

c.       an assessment/problem is followed by agreement or disagreement;

d.       an apology is followed by acknowledgement of the apology:

for example:

A: Sorry about last night!

B: No problem; we were all pretty tired.

3. Opening Sequences  in the firstly meet we often to  greetings, ask general questions or comments about the weather, sports, etc.

A: Hi, do you like the music?

B: Yes, I do like

4. Closing Sequences .

To closing the conversation, we can  summing up, using other locutions (Okay, all right then; well, that's about it; so umh; fine, then;

Respons by interlucutors: okay, goodbye then; okay bye; nice talkin' to you; see ya soon; thanks for calling/dropping by; good to see you! take care!