This book provides positive evidence regarding the validity of the language used in sitcom and drama audiovisual genres and its possible applicability to the teaching of pragmatics in English as second and foreign language contexts. The first part of the text includes a description of pragmatics and its components, speech act theories development, and the use of audiovisual input for the teaching of pragmatic aspects. The second section is devoted to the sitcom and drama transcripts analysis of direct and indirect realisations of multiple speech acts as pragmalinguistic resources, sociopragmatic variables that may influence conversation, such as politeness needs and context, and interactional patterns, including turn-taking, sequences and adjacency pairs. The book provides insightful quantitative and qualitative results which will serve to confirm, along with previous research, the usefulness and validity of this type of input, not only for teaching pragmatics, but also for the development of tasks and activities with different pedagogical outcomes and students’ needs. As such, this volume is a useful resource for pragmaticians and discourse analysis scholars since its complete analysis of transcripts justifies the validity of audiovisual input and its different applications.

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,0, University of Flensburg, course: Selected Areas of English Linguistics for TEFL Teachers, language: English, abstract: In this paper, I will analyze the animated sitcom Family Guy in terms of three linguistic features and how they relate to creating humor. The sitcom is an example of (scripted) authentic English language. The paper is divided into five sections. After this introduction, I will provide relevant theoretical background knowledge. I will start by reminding the reader of the concept of pragmatics and then introduce three pragmatic theories. First, I will present Speech Act Theory with its differentiation of the locutionary act, the illocutionary act and perlocutionary act as well as the differentiation between direct and indirect speech acts. Second, I will depict the Cooperative Principle with its four maxims (quantity, quality, relation and manner), the four types of non-observance of these maxims (flouting, violating, opting out and infringing) and the notion of implicature. Third, I will introduce the concept of politeness including positive and negative face and the idea of face-threatening acts that need to be compensated by politeness strategies. In section three, I will present Family Guy and its characters and state why using a sitcom is beneficial for my analysis. In section four, I will present and analyze eleven excerpts from various episodes in terms of the creation of humor based on pragmatic features. I will end this paper with a conclusion, in which I will present thirteen ‘humor formulas’ that I was able to deduce from the analysis.

With speech act theory assuming a renewed importance in the field of literary studies and philosophy, Foundations of Speech Act Theoryoffers a timely, thorough and, above all, compelling examination of the complexities of illocutionary acts, performatives, and their phenomenological basis. Savas Tsohatzidis has collected an impressive range of international scholars on the subject. Clearly demonstrating the relevance of speech act theory to semantic theory, the collection further interrogates the inability of pragmatic theories of illocution to properly locate such speech acts within the logic of phenomenology and intersubjectivity. Extending this analysis to the related discipline of philosophy, Tsohatzidis's contributors provide an elucidating investigation of problems lying outside the field of the philosophy of language, while also offering other alternative and rigorous perspectives for linguistic and philosophical inquiry.

Speech Acts In Argumentative Discussions: A Theoretical Model For The Analysis Of Discussions Directed Towards Solving Conflicts Of Opinion (Studies ... In Pragmatics And Discourse Analysis (Pda)).

This work consists of an examination and revision of some of the main theses of Speech Act Theory in relation to the problem of ideology and action-guiding language. Starting from the idea that linguistic philosophy must take into account how the social structure of the linguistic community may influence and direct the way its language is used, a critical method of analysis is proposed, developing Speech Act Theory in a way suitable for this purpose. The main guideline of this proposal is the consideration that a theory of action rather than a theory of meaning should be taken as central in the analysis of language. The notion of illocutionary force, the problem of intentions and conventions in the constitution of speech acts, the definition of context, and the classification of speech acts, are then discussed. Based on the conclusions of this discussion a pragmatic method for the analysis of language is formulated.

The author of the Essays that are republished here has worked on speech acts and other topics in pragmatics taking as her point of departure John L. Austin's philosophy of language. The main focus of the volume is on illocution, including issues such as illocutionary act classification, the role of the hearer's uptake and the interlocutor's responses, the accommodation of speaker-related preconditions, and the relationship of illocution with knowledge and power. Austin's way of distinguishing classes of illocutionary acts is defended and is shown to be useful in the analysis of discourse and conversation. The illocutionary act is described as bringing about effects on the deontic aspects of the relationship among the participants: such effects are defeasible, and conventional too, since their coming into being depends on the participants' agreement. This agreement, in many informal situations at least, is made manifest by the response of the addressee or other participant to the speaker's utterance and may be implicitly negotiated in conversation. Particular attention is paid to Verdictives and Exercitives. The collection also touches upon presupposition (considered in its communicative and persuasive functions), implicature and other aspects of Paul Grice's philosophy, and philosophical approaches to gender issues, always in the light of the author's view of speech as action.

This volume provides extensive critical information about current discussions in the study of speech actions. Its central reference point is classic speech act theory, but attention is also paid to nonstandard developments and other approaches that study speech as action. The first part of the volume deals with main concepts, methodological issues and phenomena common to different kinds of speech action. The second part deals with specific kinds of speech actions, including types of illocutionary acts and some discourse and conversational phenomena.