Author’s Motivation for a Speech Act Classification

Abstract

One of the most basic motivations for starting out on a speech act classification is without doubt rooted in the aim of establishing a sound theory of language. The classification of speech acts, which are basic units of linguistic behavior, seems to be a necessary precondition for a solid theory of language. A first approach to the problem is, as we know, Austin’s proposal brought forward in How to do Things with Words [1.1]. This proposal was criticized and extended on a theoretically more advanced level by Searle [1.2]. On closer inspection Searle’s classification, which was at the time the most carefully elaborated one, turned out to be untenable. A criticism is given in Sect. 6.4. A fresh start was made by the Berlin Group [1.10]. In a very first step the Berlin Group tried to start out on the basis of Searle’s speech act conditions. Every verb under consideration was analyzed in great detail in the manner of Searle’s prototype analysis of promise. The hope was that the explicit representation of features exhibiting the speech act conditions of a verb in question would automatically lead to a classification. Our attempt to realize this hope showed it to be false. We recognized that every extension of the analysis to new verbs nearly always required the revision of the whole previous analysis. New relevant features were detected all through the analysis and made it necessary to reconsider everything which had been done before. No natural end of such revisions could be seen, even at an advanced stage of the investigation. On the contrary, there were good reasons to assume that such revisions could occur until the very last verb was analyzed. Because this would have rendered these investigations very time-consuming, they had to be broken off at a rather early stage.