Indirect Speech Acts

Speech acts can be performed directly or indirectly, literally or nonliterally, explicitly or inexplicitly. When someone says: the window is open; the illocutionary act for the listener is a request. The speaker is requesting or ordering the hearer to close the window for him. The interlocutor is requesting the other party indirectly to close the window for him. That illocutionary act should not be taken from the direct meaning of the words. The hearer should pay attention in that case for both the intention of the speaker, and the context in which the utterance is said. The illocutionary meaning may also be nonliterary at all. This occurs when someone says, "I love the sound of your voice". The intended illocutionary meaning here is that the speaker should stop singing for the interlocutor can not bear listening to it anymore. Here the illocutionary meaning is not literal. The literal meaning may mislead the hearer, because the speaker does not mean that he really loves his voice, but the opposite. Understanding the illocutionary meaning in that case would not be easy without constructing an appropriate context of situation that is in line with both the conventions of that speech community, and the intention of the speaker. Certain illocutionary acts could also be inexplicit. When an interlocutor says: I will attend the lecture; his illocutionary act is not explicit and cannot be understood easily by the hearer. The hearer cannot understand which lecture he is planning to attend because the speaker kept in mind the intended lecture ( which might be the lecture of linguistics for example). Again, the speaker is depending on the shared knowledge between him and the other party. Thus, the hearer should create an appropriate context of situation, in addition to a full knowledge of the intention of the interlocutor since part of the illocutionary act is conveyed implicitly. To clarify this, one might say: I am ready. The proposed information does not give us more details about what the speaker is ready for. In that case, what the speaker intends is a completion of what he says, and this is known as 'impliciture' (Bach PAR.4-Direct, indirect speech acts).