Written Asssignment - Illocutionary Classification

  1. Here is Searle's classification for types of illocutionary acts.
    1. Assertives(or representatives): Illocutionary acts that represent a state of affairs.
      E.g. stating, claiming, hypothesizing, describing, telling, insisting,
      suggesting, asserting, or swearing that something is the case
    2. Directives: Illocutionary acts designed to get the addressee to do something.
      E.g. ordering, commanding, daring, defying, challenging
    3. Commissives: Illocutionary acts designed to get the speaker (i.e the one performing the act)
      to do something
      E.g. promising, threatening, intending, vowing to do or to refrain from doing something
    4. Expressives: Illocutionary acts that express the mental state of the speaker.
      E.g. congratulating, thanking, deploring, condoling, welcoming, apologizing
    5. Declarations: Illocutionary acts that bring about the state of affairs to which they refer.
      E.g. blessing, firing, baptizing, bidding, passing sentence, excommunicating

  2. Assign the italicized verbs of the following sentences to one of Searle's five categories (A - E).

    1. _A_ I hereby testify that I sold that property on July 3, l989.
    2. _D_ I praise you for receiving the Pulitzer Prize.
    3. _E_ I pass. (Said while playing bridge)
    4. _C_ If you need a ride, I offer to drive you to the airport.
    5. _B_ I request that you be here tomorrow one-half hour earlier.
    6. _B_ I permit you to camp out on my front lawn.
    7. _B_ I recommend that you eat less foods with cholesterol.
    8. _C_ I pledge to donate $500 to your favorite charity.
    9. _A_ I maintain that Monica Lewinsky is a national hero.
    10. _E_ I bless the two of you. (Said by a priest during the marriage ceremony)
    11. _E_ I abbreviate the Committee for Untested Trials and Experiments as CUTE.
    12. _B_ I beg you not to go out during this hurricane.
    13. _D_ I curse the day you were born.
    14. _E_ I name this dog Butchie.
    15. _D_ I compliment you on your excellent choice of wine.
    16. _A_ I predict that there will be a stock market crash later this year.
    17. _A_ I acknowledge that I promised to take you to Las Vegas.
    18. _B_ I implore you to leave that no-good husband of yours.
    19. _B_ I require my students to do homework assignments (if said directly to students).
    20. _A_ I require my students to do homework assignments (if reported to someone else).
    21. _D_ I honor you for winning a gold metal in the Olympics.

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