Chapter published in:
In Search of Basic Units of Spoken Language: A corpus-driven approach
Edited by Shlomo Izre'el, Heliana Mello, Alessandro Panunzi and Tommaso Raso
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 94] 2020
► pp. 181–220

Chapter 6
The pragmatic analysis of speech and its illocutionary classification according to the Language into Act Theory

| University of Florence – LABLITA

According to the Language into Act Theory, reference units in speech have a pragmatic nature: they correspond to the activation of sensory-motor schemas leading to the performance of different speech acts. Our background is the affective and psychic motivations of the Human Birth Theory (Fagioli, 1971), compatible with recent theories of Embodied Cognition. Identification and classification of speech acts rest on corpus-based research. Speech activity is encoded by prosody, that conveys utterance boundaries, illocutionary force and information structure. The utterance nucleus is the Comment, responsible for illocutionary force. We illustrate the methodology for the induction of illocutions from corpora and detail pragmatic and prosodic features which allow classifying illocutionary types. A case study is presented for four original illocutions (self-conclusion, assertion taken for granted, ascertainment, evidentiality assertion).

Keywords: speech activity, illocutions, spoken corpora, prosody, information structure
Article outline
  • 1.Premises
    • 1.1Introduction to Language into Act Theory
    • 1.2The corpus-based analysis of spontaneous speech
    • 1.3The empirical research
  • 2.Some examples of spontaneous speech
    • 2.1A single turn
    • 2.2A negotiation
    • 2.3An interactive multi-dialogue
    • 2.4A family conversation
  • 3.The L-AcT classification system
    • 3.1Background
    • 3.2Pragmatic features
    • 3.3Working procedure for the identification of an illocutionary type in the corpus
  • 4.Prosodic research
    • 4.1Description of the prosodic nucleus
    • 4.2The distinction between order and instruction
  • 5.A first classification
    • 5.1A general overview
    • 5.2The assertive class and its sub-classes
    • 5.3Examples of the self-conclusion type from the weak assertion sub-class
    • 5.4Examples of the assertion taken for granted type belonging to the weak assertion sub-class
    • 5.5Examples of the ascertainment type in the strong assertion sub-class
    • 5.6Examples of the assertion of evidence type from the strong assertion sub-class
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 June 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.94.06cre
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