Speech Act Classification: A Study in the Lexical Analysis of English Speech Activity Verbs

283 Pages·1981·6.78 MB·English

by  Dr. Thomas T. Ballmer

Springer Series in Language and Communication 8
Editor: W. J. M. Levelt
Springer Series in Language and Communication
Editor: W J. M. Levelt
Volume 1 Developing Grammars
By W. Klein and N. Dittmar
Volume 2 The Child's Conception of Language 2nd Printing
Editors: A. Sinclair, R. J. Jarvella, and W. J. M. Levelt
Volume 3 The Logic of Language Development in Early Childhood
By M. Miller
Volume 4 Inferring from Language
By L. G. M. Noordman
Volume 5 Retrieval from Semantic Memory
By W. Noordman-Vonk
Volume 6 Semantics from Different Points of View
Editors: R. Bauerle, u. Egli, A. von Stechow
Volume 7 Lectures on Language Performance
By Ch. E. Osgood
Volume 8 Speech Act Classification
By Th. Ballmer and W. Brennenstuhl
Volume 9 The Development of Metalinguistic Abilities in Children
By D. T. Hakes
Volume 10 Modelling Language Behaviour
By R. Narasimhan
Th. Ballmer W. Brennenstuhl
Speech Act Classification
A Study in the Lexical Analysis of
English Speech Activity Verbs
With 4 Figures
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York 1981
Dr. Thomas T Ballmer
Dr. Waltraud Brennenstuhl
Ruhr-Universitat Bochum
Sprachwissenschaftliches Institut, UniversitatsstraBe 150
D-4630 Bochum 1, Fed. Rep. of Germany
Series Editor,'
Professor Dr. Willem J. M. Levelt
Max-Planck-Institut fUr Psycholinguistik, Berg en Dalseweg 79
6522 Be Nijmegen, The Netherlands
ISBN-13: 978-3-642-67760-1 e-ISBN-13: 978-3-642-67758-8
DOl: 10.1007/978-3-642-67758-8
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data. Ballmer, Thomas T, Speech act classification. (Springer
series in language and communication; v. 8) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Speech acts (Linguistics). 2.
Lexicology. 3. English language - Verb. 4. English language - Semantics. I. Brennenstuhl, Waltraud, joint author.
II. Title. III. Series. P95.55.B34 425 80-23840
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© by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1981
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1981
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2153/3130-543210
Preface
This book presents a new classification of speech acts. It is an alter
native to all previously published classifications of speech acts. The
classification proposed here is based on an extensive set of data, name
lyon all the verbs designating linguistic activities and aspects thereof.
A theoretically and methodologically justifiable method is used to
proceed in a number of steps from these data to the classification. The
classification is documented in a lexicon with two sections. The first
section exhibits the classification in all its details. Each verb is listed
according to its meaning at the appropriate place in the classification.
The second, alphabetically ordered section enables one to locate the
verbs classified in the first part.
The speech act classification as presented in this book has a number
of consequences for linguistic theorizing: the book makes advances in
three linguistically relevant fields - speech act theory, lexicology, and
theory of meaning. In speech act theory firstly of course a classifica
tion is proposed which is theoretically justified and which is simul
taneously based explicitly and systematically on linguistic data. Second
ly, a wider concept of speech acts is introduced which proves its value
by making possible a linguistically justified classification. Thirdly, the
concept of speech act sequence (or more generally partial order) is
brought into focus as a major organizational principle of the semantic
relation between speech acts. Higher organizational units like models
and model groups are found and put in relation to notions such as
frames and scripts. In lexicology, firstly a synthesis between lexicology
proper and lexicography is proposed and worked out in detail. Second
ly, speech act classification is recognized as a prototype analysis which
has a more general relevancy in relation to the lexical analysis of the
entire verb thesaurus and even larger fragments of the lexical thesaurus.
With respect to a theory of meaning, various notions of meaning are
defined (heuristic meaning, explicatory meaning, justificatory meaning,
theoretical meaning) which prove their validity with respect to lexical
analysis and speech act theory. The speech act classification as present-
VI
ed in this book is to be seen in a larger theoretical context as well. It is
considered to lay the foundations for a sound theory of linguistic
behavior of human beings. The notions of meaning developed in this
book go back in part to the view of the Instrumental Character of natu
ral language which relies on the conception that linguistic expressions
are instruments which aid the user in changing the context (affect the
world) in a more or less purposive and effective manner. This view of
Instrumentalism generalizes to what we call Conceptual Behaviorism
which establishes a relation between linguistic behavior and some more
remote fields like, for example, psychology and biology. On the level of
Instrumentalism new light is shed on the relation between lexicon and
grammar and likewise the relation between competence and perfor
mance. More traditional positions of logical language analysis are con
sidered in this connection and compared to the Logical Grammar
(Language Reconstruction Systems) of one of the authors.
The work on the German version began in 1972 when several students
of linguistics gathered together in order to follow Austin's [1.1] pro
gram of investigating and classifying performative verbs. The mem
bers of the groups, the goals, and the ideas of the group changed several
times until the group (Th. Ballmer, W. Brennenstuhl, K. Ehlich, J. Reh
bein) was consolidated in the winter of 1974/1975 under the name of
the Berlin Group and finished the classification of German speech acts
in the summer of 1975 [1.10]. During their post-doctoral year at the
University of California Berkeley (1975/1976) the authors (Th. Ballmer
and W. Brennenstuhl) translated the German data into English and re
worked and checked them with two students, J. Rosenberg and D.
Clement. Afterwards the Authors generalized the methods of speech
act classification to the entire German verb thesaurus, begun in 1976
and finished in 1978/1979, from which they gained a great deal of
experience and theoretical insight which they could apply when they
wrote the theoretical part of this book and when in that spirit they re
organized the speech act classification somewhat. In the meantime the
German speech act classification Sprachliches Handeln underwent some
revisons. We would have preferred to await the publication of the orig
inal German classification from which our English speech act classifica
tion derived, but feel now that we can no longer delay the publication
of this book. The aims and the contents of the two books are in any
case sufficiently different that neither of the two books will render the
other superfluous. There are differences not only in language and clas
sification, but also in focus, theoretical underpinning, elaborations of
detail, and in the manner of presentation.
VII
The authors would like to express their gratitude first and above all
to Konrad Ehlich and lochen Rehbein with whom they had the good
fortune and the pleasure of developing the original German speech act
classification. We owe a debt of gratitude also to Prof. Dr. H. Schnelle
and to Prof. Dr. W.l.M. Levelt for their encouragement. Equally we
would like to acknowledge the generous support from the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Max Planck Gesellschaft (MPG)
for the work leading to the present book. The authors have been very
fortunate in having the assistance of the two English-speaking students
1. Rosenberg and D. Clement from Berkeley and the student assistants
1. Watson, S. Bramm, and K. Kuczera.
F or discussion of various issues on speech act theory we would like
to thank many colleagues and students, especially Ch. Fillmore, G.
Grunst, G. Lakoff, W. Kummer, 1.R. Searle, H. Singer, D. Vander
weken, I. Wegner, and D. Wunderlich.
In conclusion we would like to thank Mrs. Davidsohn for her effi
cient and careful typing of the manuscript.
Bochum, September 1980 Th. Ballmer
W. Brennenstuhl
Contents
Part I Classification
Chapter I Introduction................................. 3
Chapter 2 Lexical Analysis: A New Approach ............... 6
Chapter 3 Author's Motivation for a Speech Act
Classification ................................ 13
Chapter 4 Description and Explanation of the Method. . . . . . . .. IS
4.1 Brief Statement of the Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 15
4.2 Selection of Verbs ........................ 15
4.3 Formation of Categories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 17
4.4 Formation of Models ...................... 23
4.5 The System of Models ..................... 30
Chapter 5 Survey of the Resulting Speech Act
Classification ................................ 33
Chapter 6 Prospects and Limitations ...................... 39
6.1 Relation to the Classification of the
Entire Verb Thesaurus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 39
6.2 A General Theoretical Perspective ............ 41
6.3 Criticisms of Our Own Proposals ............. 48
6.4 Criticisms of Competing Proposals. . . . . . . . . . .. 53
6.4.1 Remarks on Austin's Classification
of Speech Acts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 53
6.4.2 Remarks on Searle's Classification
of Speech Acts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 55
6.4.3 Remarks on the Notion of
Meaning in Speech Act Theory. . . . . . . . .. 60
6.5 Applications............................. 61
Chapter 7 References .............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 64
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 67
x
Part II Lexicon Sections
Directions for Using Lexicon Section I . . . . . . . . . . . .. 7C
Chapter 8 Lexicon Section I
Semantic Classification of Speech Act Verbs ........ 71
8.1 EM Emotion Model ....................... 71
8.2 EN Enaction Model ....................... 7l.
8.3 KA Struggle Model ........................ 8:-
8.4 NO Institutional Model .................... 1O~
8.5 W Valuation Models ....................... 11 ~
8.6 D Discourse Models ....................... 12l.
8.7 X Text Models ........................... 13l.
8.8 T Theme Models .......................... 15:
Directions for Using Lexicon Section II
16~
Chapter 9 Lexicon Section II
Alphabetic Index of Speech Act Verbs ............ 165
Part I
Classification