Shadowing Practice: SEM141 - Speech Acts - An Overview - Learn English Speaking with Video

Any semantic theory must give an account of word and sentence meaning, explaining their nature and the relations between them.

Yet, such a semantic theory has little to say about any structures other than standard declarative sentences

or about semantic aspects involved in conversation.

Look at the following anomalies.

there please.

Well, here the adverb there is illegal in this context.

Rather it should be come here please, that is, from an external position to the position of the interlocutor.

Or take this one.

I hereby run to the station.

Well, here the adverbial hereby requires a so-called performative verb,

that is, a verb that performs a certain action such as promise, declare but run is not such a verb.

What do you think about this one here?

I promise I'll come to your party.

That's not really me, is it?

Anyway, the term promise normally involves that the addressee wants the promise to be realized.

Is that the case here?

Do you really want me to turn up at your party?

I don't know.

Well, here is my final example.

The table is under the ashtray.

Here we have a problem of perspective.

Small objects are mentioned first if they are related to larger objects.

Thus, the table is under the ashtray is only acceptable in this situation.

If the ashtray is at least as big as the table, maybe in a fairy tale world.

The goal of pragmatics is to define these and other non-truth functional aspects of meaning, hence a more general approach to meaning.

The modern use of the term pragmatics goes back to the American philosopher Charles William Morris,

who defined pragmatics as the study of the relation of signs to interpreters.

Thus, we need to make a distinction between the usual meaning of a word

or a sentence and the meaning it has in specific circumstances.

That is, we need to differentiate between meaning and use.

Here is an example.

Imagine someone says, it's fairly hot in here, which is the case because there are all the lamps around me.

Now, what does this utterance mean?

Well, it probably means that you could say some unknown person notices

that the temperature at the location of the speaker is currently above average.

That's the plain meaning.

And what about the use?

Well, the use could be something like this.

Someone is intended to open the window.

Now this dichotomy between semantics, the meaning on the one hand, and pragmatics, the use, is controversial among linguists.

Perhaps the most useful distinction is made in terms of sentence meaning versus utterance meaning,

where the latter includes all secondary aspects of meaning.

Two fields constitute the core of linguistic pragmatics,

the analysis of utterances and the analysis of conversation.

We will focus on utterances in this e-lecture.

In a now famous little book entitled How to do things with words,

with words, which was posthumously published in 1962,

John Langshaw Austin pointed out that a large number of utterances are part of an action, that is, they are performative.

For example, I hereby name this ship HMS Titanic.

This utterance is clearly in action.

As soon As it is uttered by the person who is entitled to utter it, the ship will have been named accordingly.

Thus uttering this sentence is an action of baptism.

Oh, here's another one.

There's a dog in the field.

Well, this utterance is likely to be understood as a warning.

Well, and how do you understand this?

Don't do that.

Well, maybe as an order or a request.

The peculiar thing about these sentences is that they are not used to state things.

That is, they are not just conceptive, but rather actively do things.

Furthermore, such utterances cannot be assessed as true or false, but only as appropriate or inappropriate.

How this is done has been manifested in speech act theory.

Now besides the insight that utterances are used to perform actions,

speech act theory assumes that speakers are simultaneously involved in three different speech acts when uttering a sentence.

Let us analyze these acts using our utterance don't do that.

The first of these acts is the so-called locutionary act.

This is the act of uttering a sentence with its meaning comprising phonetic and syntactic aspects corresponding to any meaningful utterance.

What does don't do that mean?

Well, it first of all addresses an unknown person,

you, the covered subject, the addressee of the speech act.

Then don't, well that's the opposite of allowance, this is the symbol for negation in logic.

So someone is not allowed to perform something.

So you're not allowed to perform something.

What is it that you're not allowed to perform?

Well, it's the overt object, probably this object here, this socket,

the object of the sentence meaning an unknown entity.

Well, as I said in this case, the socket.

So, the locutionary act is related to the basic linguistic analysis of an utterance.

Central to speech act theory is the illocutionary act.

It describes what the speaker does by uttering a sentence, that is, in performing the locutionary act.

For example, commanding, promising, threatening, warning, and so on and so forth.

The intended effect of an utterance used to perform a certain elocutionary act is known as elocutionary force.

Most elocutionary acts are implicit.

That is, they lack a particular performative verb signaling the act.

So, don't do that is an implicit order.

However, we can easily make an implicit act explicit.

An elocutionary act is explicit if the utterance contains a performative verb, that is a verb that denotes the act.

The optional adverb hereby can be inserted into such a performative utterance to stress its performative nature.

Well, here is the explicit elocutionary act.

Now, such an explicit elocutionary act or performative utterance follows a specific linguistic formula.

It always has a subject which must occur in the first person singular.

Then we have the optional adverbial hereby and a verb.

And the verb, quite interestingly, must be used in the simple present tense.

Now compare the following.

If I said, I am hereby ordering, this would not be in order at all.

It would be an explanation of what I'm doing at a particular time.

So it must occur in the simple present tense.

And then of course we have an optional object which,

if we use it, must occur in the second person, singular or plural.

100

There are some cases where the object could occur in the third person, for example, in the act of baptizing,

101

I hereby name this ship, for example.

102

Even if you use performative utterances, the interpretation might not necessarily be clear.

103

My father, and I remember this very well, often said to me, My dear son, I promise if you do that again, I will.

104

It was a warning, wasn't it?

105

Shall I tell you the whole story?

106

Well, I'd better not.

107

Let's finally look at the perlocutionary act.

108

The perlocutionary act denotes the effects on the listener by means of performing the illocutionary act.

109

The effects are special to the situation and may or may not be what the speaker intended.

110

Don't do that.

111

Well, what is the intention?

112

Well, either the speaker succeeds in preventing the listener from touching the dangerous object or not.

113

All speech acts have to follow certain felicity conditions.

114

I love that word.

115

An alternative would be appropriacy conditions.

116

Now, these conditions have to be satisfied for the performance of a speech act to be recognized as intended.

117

There are cases where the performance of a speech act will be infelicitous or, if you prefer, inappropriate, if the speaker is not a specific person in a specific context.

118

Here are some examples of declarations.

119

I declare open the Olympic Games.

120

Well, can I do it?

121

Certainly not.

122

I'm not the person who is entitled to do so.

123

So I have just violated one felicity condition.

124

I sentence you to six months in prison.

125

Again, I can't do that.

126

Or could you say something like, I hereby finish my oral exam?

127

You'd love to, but you can't because it's your examiner who is entitled to do that.

128

So you see declarations just like the other illocutionary acts such as promising or threatening, they have to follow certain conditions.

129

Austin's approach identifies several such conditions ranging from preparatory conditions,

130

that is the necessary condition for a speech act such as the correct person who performs it,

131

to propositional conditions where an act needs to say certain things about the world which are in line with the speech act.

132

These conditions will be discussed in a separate e-lecture about speech acts.

133

Now many efforts have aimed at categorizations of the types of speech acts possible in language.

134

In fact, some acts are so universal and fundamental that they are grammaticalized into the same basic sentence types in most languages.

135

So, for example, into statements, into questions, to orders.

136

However, this typology only associates sentence types with their most literal, unmarked elocutionary force.

137

Generally, the set of speech acts recognized by the speakers of a language is much more diverse and more finely grained.

138

A more sophisticated scheme was proposed by John Searle who was born in 1932.

139

He suggested that all speech acts fall into five main categories.

140

Representatives, things such as boasting or bragging, I'm an excellent footballer, would be such an act.

141

Directives or commands.

142

Commissives such as promising, well we've heard about some examples here here, expressive emotional responses, something like,

143

oh please forgive me, and of course, declarations.

144

With this e-lecture, you should now have some basic understanding of the fact that you can actually do something with language,

145

and that you can achieve particular effects.

146

So pragmatics is more than mere analysis of language.

147

It is the examination of language and its effects you can achieve with it.

148

This e-lecture concentrated on the effects you can achieve with utterances.

149

A follow-up e-lecture will add the central principles of conversation. So see you then.

✨ Recomendar Video

233 oraciones

Advance English Learning | The Mechanics of Fast Speech: Assimilation, Elision, and Intrusion

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

57 oraciones

cae 2 test 2 part 2

Cambridge Exam PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

101 oraciones

IELTS Speaking Part 1 – Advertisement | Band 6–8 Answers | Learnivo English #ieltsspeaking #ielts

IELTS PrepCambridge Exam PrepUniversity Students

94 oraciones

Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepCambridge Exam Prep

44 oraciones

WRITE FROM DICTATION - THÁNG 07.2026 - PART 6

TOEFL PrepCambridge Exam PrepUniversity Students

Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación de nivel C1 se basa en el vídeo “SEM141 - Speech Acts - An Overview”. Las palabras que más se repiten: utterance, speech, sentence, meaning, condition. Este vídeo tiene 149 frases y 1683 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 14:18. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 118 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. Solo el 81 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés, por lo que el vocabulario es exigente.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

Las 15 palabras más avanzadas del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
utterance sustantivo	/ˈʌtəɹəns/	enunciado, discurso
performative adjetivo		performativo, performático
hereby adverbio	/hɪɹˈbaɪ/	por este, por este medio
verb sustantivo	/vɝb/	verbo
pragmatic adjetivo	/pɹæɡˈmætɪk/	pragmático
utter verbo	/ˈʌtəɹ/	resolgar, resollar
explicit adjetivo	/ɪkˈsplɪs.ɪt/	explícito
intend verbo	/ɪnˈtɛnd/	pretender, intencionar
ashtray sustantivo	/ˈæʃ.tɹeɪ/	cenicero
implicit adjetivo	/ɪmˈplɪsɪt/	implícito, tácito
semantic adjetivo	/sɪˈmæntɪk/	semántico
linguistic adjetivo	/lɪŋˈɡwɪstɪk/	lingüístico, lingual
optional adjetivo	/ˈɑp.ʃə.nəl/	opcional
addressee sustantivo	/ˌædɹɛˈsiː/	destinatario, consignatario
adverbial adjetivo	/ædˈvɝbi.əl/	adverbial

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Palabra	Significado
follow up verbo	dar seguimiento, dar un seguimiento
point out verbo	señalar, apuntar

Frases que vale la pena repetir

Frases cortas y completas del vídeo que puedes reutilizar en la conversación diaria:

What do you think about this one here?
I promise I'll come to your party.
That's not really me, is it?
What is it that you're not allowed to perform?
Shall I tell you the whole story?

Gramática en este vídeo

Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:

Estructura	En el vídeo
Oraciones condicionales if + oración, will/would + verbo — una condición y su resultado	if you do that again, I will
“Used to” used to + verbo — un hábito o estado pasado que ya no es cierto	used to state · used to perform
Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace	be realized · are mentioned · is intended
Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosa	here, which is · words, which was · person who is

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 19 contracciones y formas reducidas, como don't, I'm, can't. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: ashtray /ˈæʃ.tɹeɪ/, optional /ˈɑp.ʃə.nəl/, categorization /ˌkæt.ə.ɡə.ɹaɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, negation /nɪˈɡeɪʃn̩/, differentiate /dɪf.əˈɹɛn.ʃi.eɪt/
Palabras largas — cuida el acento: adverbial /ædˈvɝbi.əl/, felicity /fəˈlɪsəti/, inappropriate /ˌɪnəˈpɹoʊpɹi.ət/, anomaly /əˈnɑ.mə.li/, categorization /ˌkæt.ə.ɡə.ɹaɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
Haz shadowing frase por frase a velocidad normal, repitiendo cada una hasta que tu ritmo coincida con el del hablante.
Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como utterance, performative, hereby.

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?

Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.

Técnica de shadowing: lee la guía completa paso a paso →

Shadowing Practice: SEM141 - Speech Acts - An Overview - Learn English Speaking with Video

Are we WRONG about most FAMOUS LINGUISTICS experiment??

Gee: What is Discourse

CELPIP Speaking Task 1 - Real question + Sample Answer 1 | 2025

Philosophy of Science Lecture #1: Introduction

Pragmatics: Crash Course Linguistics #6

bassham ch3pt1

Contemporary Topics 2 Unit 2 Lecture with Powerpoint