Language in Action: Illocutionary Acts in Anne with an E

Illocutionary acts are speech acts in which the speaker encodes an intended meaning in an utterance, and the listener decodes this meaning from the utterance. Illocutionary acts are not based on form (grammar) but rather on meaning. This study examines illocutionary acts used by the characters in the first season of the Canadian period drama television series Anne with an E, presented by Netflix. The subtitles presented by the series were analyzed using a Searle approach. Contextual cues that shed light on the nuances of the utterances and expressions of the characters were noted. The results of the study indicated the presence of all five primary classifications of illocutionary acts within the series. These illocutionary acts were ranked from the most to the least prevalent, beginning with assertives, accounting for a substantial 40.72% of the total dataset, followed by directives, constituting 30.13%. Commissives were observed to be 7.26% of the instances, while expressives made up 21.14% of the dataset. Finally, declaratives were the least frequently utilized, representing a mere 0.86% of the total data. Thus, language serves not only to convey straightforward sentences but is also used to express both actions and interactions.