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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif"">Dear Christian – According to my understanding of speech act theory, the only way for an utterance to fail to perform a speech act is by being infelicitous. (This generalization hinges on the definition
of ‘utterance.’ I believe that the generalization holds, at least in first approximation, if ‘utterance’ is understood as a minimal ‘turn-constructing unit’ in the sense of conversation analysis.) Therefore, your examples in (2) must have illocutionary force
unless they happen to be infelicitous, which would presumably depend on the context (as there is nothing obvious in the sentences themselves that would render them infelicitous).
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif"">On the classification developed by Searle (1976) and Searle & Vanderveken (1985), these utterances would be ‘expressives’, which Searle & Vanderveken define as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif"">“The expressive point is to express feelings and attitudes. In utterances with the expressive point the speaker expresses some psychological attitude about the state of affairs represented by the propositional
content.” (S&V p38)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif"">Now, Searle (and Searle & Vanderveken) claim(s) the classification of speech acts into ‘assertions’, ‘directives’, ‘commissives’, ‘declarations’, and ‘expressives’ to be exhaustive. To me, this seems
rather implausible. So there may well be a superior classification to be had, which may place your examples under a different category. And perhaps an exhaustive classification of speech acts without a remainder category is in fact impossible. The problem
of classifying speech acts strikes me rather analogous to that of classifying semantic roles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif"">Best – Juergen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif"">Searle, J. R. (1976). A classification of illocutionary acts. Language in Society 5(1): 1-23.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif"">Searle, J. R. & D. Vanderveken. (1985). Foundations of illocutionary logic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"CMU Serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black">Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)<br>
Professor, Department of Linguistics<br>
University at Buffalo <br>
<br>
Office: 642 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus<br>
Mailing address: 609 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260 <br>
Phone: (716) 645 0127 <br>
Fax: (716) 645 3825<br>
Email: </span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><a href="mailto:jb77@buffalo.edu" title="mailto:jb77@buffalo.edu"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:#0078D4">jb77@buffalo.edu</span></a></span><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black"><br>
Web: </span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><a href="http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/" title="http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:#0563C1">http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/</span></a></span><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black"> <br>
<br>
</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Office hours Tu/Th 3:30-4:30pm in 642 Baldy or via Zoom (Meeting ID 585 520 2411; Passcode Hoorheh) </span><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black"><br>
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There’s A Crack In Everything - That’s How The Light Gets In <br>
(Leonard Cohen) </span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">-- <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="DE" style="font-family:"CMU Serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="DE" style="font-family:"CMU Serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="color:black">From: </span></b><span style="color:black">Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Christian Lehmann via Lingtyp <lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org><br>
<b>Date: </b>Sunday, August 25, 2024 at 12:14<br>
<b>To: </b>lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org><br>
<b>Subject: </b>[Lingtyp] optative sentences<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in">Dear colleagues, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="western" style="mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in">
since my master’s thesis (admittedly, a couple years ago), I have been struggling with the manifestation of volition in grammar. Please consider the following contrast:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="western" style="mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in">
There is one type of utterances which communicate to the hearer that the speaker <u>
wants</u> P. Like a command, they appeal to him to see to it that P be realized. This is explicit in (1a).<o:p></o:p></p>
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(1)(a) Please shut the window!<o:p></o:p></p>
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(b) The window should be shut.<o:p></o:p></p>
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In this sense, (1b) is an indirect speech act, but the type of volition conveyed is the same. One might say that (1)(a) and (b) share their illocutionary force.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="western" style="mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in">
<o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="western" style="mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in">
There is another type of utterances which express that the speaker <u>wishes</u> P. They are exclamations which do not appeal to anybody for fulfillment of P:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="western" style="mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in">
(2)(a) If only Linda arrived in time!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="western" style="mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in">
(b) The devil take him!<o:p></o:p></p>
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Sentences of type #2 are introduced by <i>utinam</i> in Latin, <i>ojalá</i> in Spanish, and so forth. Such particles are not used in sentences of type #1.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="western" style="mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in">
<o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="western" style="mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in">
Also, unfulfillable wishes (traditionally: irreal optative sentences) are fine and common as type #2, but in type #1 produce utterances hard to interpret.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="western" style="mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in">
<o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="western" style="mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in">
Here are my questions to you:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]>Is there an established conceptual and terminological distinction between these two types? How about (1) volitive and (2) optative?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="western" style="mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1">
<![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]>Does type #2 have an illocutionary force? Do exclamations have an illocutionary force?<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in">-- <o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann<br>
Rudolfstr. 4<br>
99092 Erfurt<br>
<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Deutschland</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">Tel.:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">+49/361/2113417<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">E-Post:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><a href="mailto:christianw_lehmann@arcor.de">christianw_lehmann@arcor.de</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">Web:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><a href="https://www.christianlehmann.eu/">https://www.christianlehmann.eu</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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