In Search of Speech Acts

This study investigates critical notions on the linguistic phenomenon known as “speech act”. The literature reveals diverse perspectives on speech act. See Austin (1962), Searle (1969), Grice (1975), Saddok (1974), Bach and Harnish (1979), Mey (2001) and Acheoah (2015) for instructive submissions on pragmatics and speech acts. The study of speech acts is essentially a study of the functional perspective of language use. Scholars align with the idea that language use is not arbitrary as it serves the fundamental purpose of achieving speakers’ communicative intentions. Early speech act theorists note that the minimal unit of communication transcends the sentence; it is the performance of discrete acts: ordering, informing, requesting, persuading, asking, ascribing, praising, acknowledging, etc. Hinging on the Modular Speech Act Theory, this study concludes that the features of speech acts include the facts that: they are loosely categorized; they can be directly or indirectly performed; they can be performed figuratively; they are performed contextually; they are performed with preparatory conditions; and they can be performed with non-performative formula; and felicity conditions are involved in their performance.