SPEECH ACTS

Emel Demirci-Özkan Örenli

Cahit Erdi Anlatır

Selin Uygur-Nurşen İnalöz

Özge Soylu-Burak Karagün

SPEECH ACTS

While a language may be used for innumerable purposes, all languages are capable of at least three functions;

To pass on information To glean information To issue commands

HENCE, WE USE LANGUAGE FOR ANY OF THESE THREE CORE PURPOSES OF

↘ Asserting something ( declaratives) ↘ Asking something ( interrogatives) ↘ Commanding something ( imperatives)

WE ENGAGE IN SPEECH ACT, AND WE PERFORM AN ACT BY MAKING AN UTTERANCE. THESE TYPES OF SPEECH ACT SEEM TO BE UNIVERSAL TO ALL HUMAN LANGUAGES.

① Declaratives ─ an assertion ─ a statement made in order to pass on

information ↘ The chairman is blocking social interaction ↘ You are sitting on the floor

② Interrogatives ─ a request for information, posed as a

question with the intention of gleaning information

↘ Why are you sitting on the floor?

↘ Are you sitting on the floor?

③ Imperatives A command, uttered with the intention of

getting someone to do something. ↘ Sit on the floor! ↘ Vote for me!

DECLARATIVESPresented by Özkan Örenli

Declaratives are usually the least marked sentence type and are typically used for statements, such as;

They are swimming.

DECLARATIVES

affirmative negative

AFFIRMATIVE The puppy is playing with a ball. The man was standing behind the blue truck. The weather is nice.

 NEGATIVE The puppy is not playing with a ball. The man was not standing behind the blue truck. The weather is not nice.

Affirmative Declaratives Affirmative declaratives are typically used for

descriptive speech acts, such as asserting something, describing something, complaining or bragging about something, predicting or promising something, and so on. It is typically the most frequent sentence type, it is typically the least restricted in its distribution, and it may typically combine with all the TMA options of the language.

Sheko (Afro-Asiatic (North Omotic): Ethiopia)

Tauya (Trans-New-Guinea (Madang): Papua New Guinea)

NEGATIVE DECLARATIVESPresented by Cahit Erdi Anlatır

NEGATİON

A negation reverses the truth of a Proposition.

The declarative Mary is drinking tea states the actuality that Mary is drinking tea. If we add a negative markes we reverse this actuality.Marry is not drinking tea

The strategies may differ but all known languages have a way of forming a Negative Declarative.

CLAUSAL AND CONSTİUENT NEGATİON

This type negates an entire clause, giving a negative counterpart to an affirmative declarative, as in ‘Marry is not drinking tea’

A constiuent negation negates only a particular constiuent in the clause, such as NP negation as in No tea could be found, where the negative NO only refers to the NP tea and not to the entire clause.

Nothing could be found Hiçbirşey bulunamadı Nobody can do that

Marry never drinks tea Aslı asla çay içmez

Negative Pronouns Negative Adverbs

The negation can have different scope over the sentence. Scope essentially refers to that section which is affected by the meaning of particular form. In English scope over everything that comes after it.Compare : 1) I deliberately didn’t step on the snail 2) I didn’t deliberately step on the snailin the first sentence it was a conscious and premedicated act to not to step on the snail but in the second one I did step on the snail but the act was accidential.

In all known languages clausal negation is realized through morpholgy one way or another. As Dryer indicates that ‘there are no known istances of languages in which negation is realized by a change in word order or by intonation and all languages have negative morphemes’. Languages tend to have either negative particles or negatives affixes such as English with the particle not or Gaagudju with the particle gaayu. This strategy is spread all over the world.Gaagudju (Australian: Australia)gaayu i – n –yii- ngineg 3I-IRR-go-past‘he didn’t go’

The second largest group in Dryer’s database forms negative declarative sentences by way of a negative affix. This is also a strategy spread all over the world, except in the largely isolating Southeast Asian languages. Chichewa is an example of such a language, with its negative prefix si- or –s if it precedes a vowel.Chichewa (Niger,Congo,Bantoid:Malawi,MozambiqueMkângo s- ú -ku-wá-pwhwány-a maûnguIII.lion Neg-III.SM-PRES-VI.OBJ-smash-FV VI.pumpkins

The remaining types of strategies all make up proportionally rather smaller groups of languages. In Dryer’s sample the negative declarative is formed through a type of auxiliary verb which inflects for person and number in the same way as other auxilaries. Finnish is an example of such a language, as shown in repeated here for convenience.Finnish (Uralic (Finnic):Finlanden tule kotilinNeg.1SG come home.ILL

In the auxilary en is inflected for person and number, in this case first person singular. While this is a comparatively rare strategy, languages with auxilary verb negatives are found in most parts of the world, but are especially prominent northern Eurasia in a belt stretching from Finland to the Russian far East, along the North American Pacific coast and in a cluster in Central Africa. Auxilary verb negatives are completely absent in Australia, Europe (except for Finland) and the Middle East in Dryer’s sample.

In 73 languages, clustered mainly in West Africa,Southeast Asia and the South Pacific Islands, it is not possible to determine if the negator is an Auxilary or a particle. For example, if a language has little or no mophology and the verb carries no inflection, a negative word may be an auxilary without any inflection (just like the other verbs) but it may also be a particle. In Tinrin, for example, the negative is not inflected but neither is the verb.

Tinrin: (Austronesian (Oceanic): New Caledonianrâ see trò warra nrâ toni

3.SG NEG arrive yet SM PNIn cases like this example it is not possible to determine wheter the negative word see should be considered a particle or auxilary verb although for some languages there might be syntactic criteria that indicate how the negative is best classified.

A small group of 21 languages found in all parts of the world in Dryer’s sample have both a negative affix and a negative word. In Orokaiva negation is expressed with the suffix –ae except for those clauses that are in the future tense or habitual aspect, for which the particle mane is used

Orokaiva (Trans-New Guinea (Binanderean): Papua New Guineana pamb-ae na mane pamba -so- n- a1sg-go-neg 1sg-NEG go-FUT-1.SG-IND

DOUBLE NEGATİON

Je ne veux pas manger

1.sg-Neg-want-Neg-eat Nous ne voulons pas

aller1.PL-NEG-want-NEG-go Makaa (Niger-Congo

(BantoidmӘ â-câl-έ mӘ-l

Әndú

Finally 120 languages in Drayer’s sample have double negation,i.e. Two negative simultaneous morphemes

In Makaa this double negation is expressed through the parafix a-...(H) –έ and high tone on the verb stem

French (Indo-European)

Another secondary strategy in negative declaratives may be change of word order as in Lokaa where affirmative declaratives are typically SOV

Lokaa (Niger-Congo(Cross River):NigeriaÚbi ó-kpèèyi kò-póóPN I.AGR-sell XI-cup S V OUbi sold a cupÚbi kò-póó òó-kpèèyi PN XI-cup NEG-I.AGR.-sellS O VUbi didn’t sell a cupNotice that the tone of the verb stem -kpèèyi ‘sell’

remains the same in both sentences. The negative affects the word order not the tone

Another secondary effect of negation may be the number of TMA distinctions allowed; in languages where TMA distincitions are affected by negation, there are typically fewer distinctions in the negative than the affirmative.

In Burmese the punctual aspect and the realis/irrealis modal distinctions are lost in the negative

a. Thu yau’ pi d. Tin hpei a ye’ ma-thau’ hpu:3sg reach PUNCT PN liquor NEG-drink NEG(S)he has arrived Tin Pe doesn’t drink liquor.

b. Thu ma-yau’ hpu: e. Thu pyo: ma-la3.SG NEG-arrive NEG 3sg speak IRR-Q (S)he hasn’t arrived Will (S)he speak?

c. Tin hpei a ye’ thau’ tha-la f. Thu ma-pyo: hpu:PN liquor drink R-Q 3.sg NEG-speak-NEGDoes Tin Pe drink liquor ? (S)he won’t speak

The punctual aspect in (a) as well as the realis and irrealis mood in (c and e) respectively are all neutralized with the negative as can be seen in (b,d and f)

These secondary strategies are what may be called asymmetric negations. In symmetric negations ‘ the structure of the negative is identical to the structure of the affirmative, except for the presence of the negative markers’ while in asymmetric negations the structure differs from the affirmative one way or another. English is an example of a language classed with emphatic sentences. Sentences like He has eaten versus He has not eaten exhibit symmetric negation. However; asymetry is exhibited with respect to the distinction between emphatic and non-emphatic sentences which is lost in negation.

INTERROGATIVES

Presented by Selin Uygur

INTERROGATIVES

All languages have some way of gleaning information, that is, of forming interrogatives with the purpose of extracting information. Interrogatives may take the shape of different kinds of questions. If the information sought after is merely comfirmation or disconfirmation of the truth value of an utterance, we form polar questions. If we need more elaborate information, we form content questions.

Will you come home today Polar questions When will you come home Content

question

POLAR QUESTIONS

With polar questions the expected answer is typically Yes or No although there are usually a few other alternatives available such as Perhaps. Most languages have specific strategies for forming polar questions.

Languages have a distinct intonation pattern for polar questions. Often a polar question has a rising intonation, as in case in English (For example you are listening to yourself first saying You are home then Are you home?) But, this is not a universal. Hawai’i Creole English, for example, has a falling intonation for polar questions. These types of languages are spread over the world. Italian is an example of such a language

Italian (Indo-European) Laura viene con noi

(statement) PN come 3SG. Pres. IND with 1PL ‘Laura is coming with us.’ Laura viene con noi

(question) PN come.3SG.PRES.IND with 1PL ‘Is Laura coming with use?’ (source:

personal knowledge)

Additionally intonation as a strategy is underrepresented in Dryer’s map since a language has only coded for that strategy if there are no other grammatical means for forming a polar question in the language. However in some languages, intonation may be the most common means of indicating a polar question, but if some other method is used a minority of the time, then the language is shown on the map according to that method. It is common for languages to combine intonation with any of the strategies discussed below.

Quite rare strategy for marking polar questions is through change of word order. Swedish is an example of a language that employs inverted word order to form polar questions.

Swedish (Indo- European (Germanic): Sweeden)a) han kommer

3SG.M come.PREs ‘He is coming.’

b) kommer han come.PRES 3SG:M ‘Is he coming?’ A very rare strategy indeed is to mark polar

questions through the absence of a declarative marker. For example;

Puquinaa) cuhana-qu-ench b) cuhana-pi believe-1S.SG-DECL believe-2S ‘I believe.’ ‘Do you believe?’

In the obligatory declarative marker -(e)nch/-(a)nch suffixes to the verb, while in the absence of this marker indicates that the utterance is a polar question.

A rather more common strategy is to have a special verbal inflection signalling the polar question. Korean is an example of such a language with its question marker suffix –ni or –nyi.

Korean pi ka o-ni/o-(nu)-nyirain NOM come-Q/come-IND-Q‘Is it raining?’

The by far most common strategy in Dryer’s database is to have question particles, which may either be a free particle or a clitic added to the declarative sentence. For example;

Ainupirka-p ne yarich-person be Q‘Is (he) a rich person?’

In the particle ya signals that the utterance is a question. In Ainu this particle sentence final. This is the most common pattern for languages with question particles. Also, question particles may be sentence initial. Question particles or clitics may in other positions in the sentence. Languages may have tag questions which can be seen as a type of question particle but “contribute a certain bias by raising expectations toward either positive or negative answer”. English has tags where the negative tag presupposes a positive answer and a positive tag a negative answer:

a) You do know it, don’t you? (Expected answer: Yes I do.)

b) You don’t know it, do you? (Expected answer: No, I don’t.)

Tags tend to occur at the end of the sentence irrespective of the basic word order of the language. They are sometimes considered a shortened version of a different strategy, the disjunctive-negative structure, also known as ‘A-not-A-construction.’ For example;MandarinTa chi-bu-chi pingguo3SG eat-not-eat apple‘Does she/he eat apples?’

In the polar question is formed by giving the verb (chi ‘eat’) twice, once positive and once negated. It may be that tags originate from A-not-A constructions and that question particles in turn originate from tags and the A-not-A construction. However, some languages use the A-not-A construction together with a question particle.

TurkishAhmet sinema-ya git-ti mi git-me-di miPN cinema-DAT go-past Q go-NEG-PAST Q‘Did Ahmet go to the cinema (or didn’t he)

In Turkish the A-not-A construction is optional and when used, combines with the question particle.

A few languages in Dryer’s database to be exact, have both question particles and an interrogative suffix –a which may either occur alone or together.

Kashmiri(k’a) tsi gatsh-kh-a:

paga:h gariQ 2SG go-2SGPS-Q tomorrow

home

‘Will you go home tomorrow?’

One single language in Dryer’s database, Chalcatongo Mixtec lacks any kind of differentiation between statements and polar questions.

Chalcatongo Mixtec naba?a=ro libru=ro have=2 have=2 ‘You have your book’/ ‘Do you have your book?’ The utterance can be interpreted either as a

statement or a question; there is no overtmarking and no intonational difference between meanings.

CONTENT QUESTİONS

Presented by Nurşen İnalöz

CONTENT QUESTİONS

Content questions contain an interrogative phrase and demand a specicic answer containing other information than just a confirmation or nonconfirmation. In other words, a simple Yes or No is not an adequate answer to a content question.

An example of a content question is; What are you reading?Where the answer would have to give specific

information, such as, ‘Shakespeare’ or something similar.

An interrogative phrase may consist of only a question word, for example, ‘what are you reading?’but may also consist of more than that ‘which book are you reading now?.

The interrogative phrase replaces the constituent asked about, thereby indicating what kind of information is being requested. For example;

John read the book, in a corresponding content question, replaced by the interrogative phrase who .who read the book?

The interrogative phrase in English is by default in sentence initial position, leaving a gap:

John read [the detective story]ₒ [what]ₒ did John read -------? This movement is called ‘ fronting’.

ENGLİSH REQUİRE THE İNTERROGATİVE PHRASE TO BE İN SENTENCE İNİTİAL POSİTİON , HOWEVER, SUCH AS DUMİ LANGUAGE, WHERE THE İNTERROGATİVE PHRASE İS İN THE SAME POSİTİON AS THE CONSTİTUENT.

Dumi (Sino-Tibetan (Bodic): Nepal)A) an-a mwo: a-dzi-t-a

2SG-ERG. What MS-eat-NPST-23SS O V

B) Khi:bi-ɂa aɳ a-ka:ts-әDog-ERG 1SG MS-bite-1SGS O V

The question word mwo: ‘what’ in a is an object and placed in the same position as an object in a declarative sentence b.

ALL KNOWN LANGUAGES HAVE A SET OF WORDS THAT ARE USED FOR CONTENT QUESTİONS, BUT NOT ALL LANGUAGES HAVE SPECİFİC QUESTİON WORDS. IN WARİ, FOR EXAMPLE, A CONTENT QUESTİON İS FORMED BY PLACİNG A FORM OF THE DEMONSRATİVE MA’ İN İNİTİAL POSİTİON AND LEAVİNG A CORRESPONDİNG GAP İN THE CLAUSAL SYNTAX.

Wari (Chapacura- Wanhan (Chapacura-Wanhan):Brazil)

 

ma’ co pa’ nana hwam pain

that.PROX.HEARER INFL.M/F.RP kill 3PL.RP fish PREP.3N

S V O

b. mam wac ‘ina-on hwam pain quit

INST cut 1SG.RP-3SM fish prep.3N knife

V S O

LANGUAGES MAY ALSO HAVE İNTERROGATİVE VERBS, THAT İS, VERBS THAT İN THEMSELVES FUNCTİON AS A QUESTİON WORD. LAVUKALEVE İS AN EXAMPLE OF SUCH A LANGUAGE:

Lavukaleve (Solomons East Papuan (Lavukaleve):Solomons Islands)

me-kalem vasia-m 2PL-father be. Where- SG.M ‘Where is your (pl) father?’The verb vasia ‘be.where’ in this sentence is in

itself a question word, not properly translatable into English, since English does not have interrogative verbs.

IMPERATIVES

Presented by Özge Soylu

IMPERATIVES

All known languages have some kind of strategy for expressing directive speech acts or impreatives.speech acts meant to get addressee to perform some kind of actions.imperatives are typically used to issue;

commands; sit down! requests:please switch off the light entreaties: let me try is out! advices:don’t bike without a helmet! warnings: watch out for dog! instructions:stir a spoonful of port in the sauce wishes: have fun!

Imperatives may be positive or negative,in that the former directs the addressee towards an action that sould be done

POSITIVE IMPERATIVES

Positive imperatives usually simply termed imperatives are used to initate action,ın addition to the different morphological strategies for marking imperatives. It sould be noted in some languages such as Abkhaz make a gender distinction in singular imperatives. for example;

w-c'a (GO!) male addressee b-c'a (GO!) female addressee sw-c'a ( GO!) plural addressee

In Tashihiyt the gender distinction appears in the plural but not in singular.For example;

du: (GO!) said to one male or female addressee du-iat: (GO!) said to more than one male

addressee du-iamt:(GO!) said to more than one female

addressee

Language may have different imperative markers depending on aspect, remoteness, distance, directions or evidientally. Lavukaleve,for example; has two sets of imperative markers in three numbers,for the perfective and imperfective aspects respectively.example of Lavukaleveperfective imperfective

singular va ma iru-ma (sleep) IMP.SING iru-va (sleep) PERF.SING Languages may have different imperative markers

depending on the evidentiality of the command.In Triana,for example;an imperative uttered by one person may be repeated by another person,but then only as a second hand command.

pi-nha-pida ( eat,you were told to you) pina di-pasya-da (beware a car,you are walking in the

middle of the road,you can see it)

NEGATIVE IMPERATIVES

Presented by Burak Karagün

NEGATIVE IMPERATIVES

In English, we use the word "don't" for prohibitions, or negative imperatives. For example:

Don't do it!Don't say that!

Negative Imperative form in Latin: In Latin the negative imperative is formed

with two words, the imperative of nolo, nolle and the infinitive.

Nolo by itself means "I do not want," but in its imperative it means "do not...!"

Nolle is irregular, and its imperative forms are noli and nolite.

Do not fear me! Noli me timere!   Don't wash the dog, boys! Nolite, pueri, canem lavare!

Negative Imperative form in French :

When you want to form the negative imperative form, simply put -ne in front of the imperative and -pas or an alternative after it. For example:

Ne va pas au parc. (Don't go to the park.)

Ne mangeons plus de viande. (Let's not eat any more meat.)

  N'oubliez jamais ce que je vous ai dit. (Never

forget what I have told you.)

Negative Imperative form in Spanish :

The imperative mood is a verb conjugation in the Spanish language that refers to verbs in the present tense, simple aspect, imperative mood, and active voice. The Spanish imperative makes direct commands, expresses requests, and grants or denies permission.

The conjugation patterns for regular -ar Spanish verbs in the informal imperative are as follows:

singular informal affirmative – simple present stem + a – baila

singular informal negative – simple present stem + es – no bailes

plural informal affirmative – simple present stem + ad – bailad

plural informal negative – simple present stem + éis – no bailéis

Ayúdame. “(You) Help me.” No fuméis. “(You all) Don’t smoke.” Cantad. “(You all) Sing.” No almuerzes. “(You) Do not eat lunch.”

CONCLUSIONPresented by Emel Demirci

DECLARATIVES↘ AFFIRMATIVE ∞ can be marked and unmarked as sentence type ∞ can be realis or irrealis propositions and may

combine with dubitative modal markers across languages. (maybe he is there)

↘ NEGATIVE ∞ Clausal negation (you are not listening to me) ∞ Constituent negation (no game can be played) ∞ Negative pronouns (nothing, nobody) ∞ Negative adverbs (you never listen to me) In all languages, negation is realized by a

change in word order or by intonation, and all languages have negative morphemes.

INTEROGATIVES

↘ POLAR QUESTIONS ∞ have yes or no questions ∞ have a rising or falling intonation that

differentiate across languages Bizimle geliyor → statement and falling

intonation ↘ Bizimle mi geliyorsun? → question and rising

intonation↗ Intonation may be the most common means

o indicating a polar question.

↘ CONTENT QUESTIONS ∞ question-word questions ∞ information questions ∞ wh- questions All languages have set of words that are

used for content questions, but not all languages have specific question words. Content question is formed by replacing a form of the demonstrative.

IMPERATIVES

↘ Positive imperatives Languages make gender distinctions in the

choice of imperative marker based on the sex on the speaker, and have different imperative markers depending on aspect, remoteness, distance, direction or evidentiality.

↘ Negative imperatives ( prohibitives) All languages express negative

imperatives differently even though they all have a way of commanding someone not to do something. Prohibitive is formed by adding the ordinary negator to the imperative clause, or languages have a special negator for prohibitives.

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