Or for example ordering food at a restaurant

When you say, “Devushka, I’d like the borsch please.” You are simultaneously:

• Locutionary act: you, saying the words “I’d like the borsch please.”

• Illocutionary act: Notifying your waitress what you want to eat, that you want nothing else, and asking her to bring you the food.

• Prelocutionary act: Potentially making the suggestion that you in a hurry depending on how you say it.

Speech as skilled work

As we’ve said speech can be socially classified in terms of types of speech-acts and these speech act types are learned as part of our socialization. You learn how to say things, the right way to perform speech acts, as you grow up. For example, we learn how to order a meal in a restaurant by watching other people doing it in much the same way we learn vocabulary and grammatical constructions.

The clearest evidence for this learning is that rules and skills vary from society to society, from culture to culture. Speech acts are very cultural and if you do not learn to perform them in another culture you will have trouble communicating.

For example:

In Ukraine it is okay to yell for the Devushka at a restaurant. That speech act will get you the food and drink you want.

In the U.S.A if you yell “girl” at your waitress, it will not have the same effect. In fact, you will likely NOT get any food or drink. She will likely call you rude and refuse to serve you.

These cultural rules for “doing things” are part of our social norms governing speech.

Norms governing speech

Skilled speaking requires a number of factors, including a knowledge of the relevant rules governing speech. These are often termed the speech norms. The rules vary from one society to another, and as we said, they can be very different.

We call these speech norms, because they define the normal behavior for social interaction, and thus speech interaction in a given society.

The book does a good job of discussing these. I will deal with each of these norms, one at a time, and try to elaborate on what is said.

1. Norms governing what can be talked about: taboos and euphemism.

The first speech norm we will discuss is NOT mentioned in your book, but it is an important norm. It is what we are allowed to talk about. Topics that people do not discuss are called taboos. They exist in every culture, but they can be very different depending on the culture.

Taboo:/ B tbu / noun [count] something that people in a given society or culture do not do or talk about because it is very offensive or shocking

There are a number of subjects people do not talk about at certain times or with certain people, for example in the U.S.A we usually are careful about who we talk to about politics, religion, and sex. Are these different in Ukraine?

Similarly, in the U.S.A people never talk about how much money they are making, and it is considered impolite to ask someone…is that the case in Ukraine?

Take the next ten seconds to think about all those terrible things you are not supposed to talk about in public—Good. Those are your examples of language taboos.