Illocutionary Verbs vs Illocutionary Acts

1. Many of the verbs we call illocutionary verbs are not markers of illocutionary point but of some other feature of the illocutionary act. Consider "insist" and "suggest". I can insist that we go to the movies or I can suggest that we go to the movies; but I can also insist that the answer is found on p. 16 or I can suggest that it is found on p. 16. The first pair are directives, the second, assertives. Both "insist" and "suggest" are used to mark the degree of intensity with which the illocutionary point is presented. They do not mark a separate illocutionary point at all. Similarly, "announce", "hint", and "confide", do not mark separate illocutionary points but rather the style or manner of performance of an illocutionary act. Paradoxical as it may sound, such verbs are illocutionary verbs, but not names of kinds of illocutionary acts. It is for this reason, among others, that we must carefully distinguish a taxonomy/classification of illocutionary acts from one of illocutionary verbs.

2. According to Searle, illocutionary verbs may be classified like this:

(a) First, as just noted, some verbs do not mark illocutionary point at all, but some other feature, e.g. "insist", "suggest", "announce", "confide", "reply", "answer", "interject", "remark", "exclaim" and "interpose".

(b) Many verbs mark illocutionary point plus some other feature, e.g. "boast", "lament", "threaten", "criticize", "accuse", and "warn" all add the mark of goodness or badness to their primary illocutionary point.

(c) Some few verbs mark more than one illocutionary point, e.g. a protest involves both an expression of disapproval and a petition for change. Promulgating a law has both a declarational status (the propositional content becomes law) and a directive status (the law is directive in intent). The verbs of assertive declaration fall into this class.

(d) Some few verbs can take more than one illocutionary point. Consider "warn" and "advise". Notice that both of these take either the directive syntax or the assertive syntax.

Thus, I warn you to stay away from my wife! (directive)

I warn you that the bull is about to charge (assertive)

I advise you to leave (directive)

Passengers are hereby advised that the train will be late (assertive).

Correspondingly, warning and advising may be either telling you that something is the case (with relevance to what is or is not in your interest) or telling you to do something about it (because it is or is not in your interest). They can be, but need not be, both at once.

3. The most important conclusion is as follows. If we adopt illocutionary point as the basic notion on which to classify uses of language, then there are a rather limited number of basic things we do with language: we tell people how things are, we try to get them to do things, we commit ourselves to doing things, we express our feelings and attitudes and we bring about changes through our utterances. Often, we do more than one of these at once in the same utterance.

Reference Notes 5