Representative Speech Act

Anytime anyone says anything, they are doing more than simply speaking. Their words have meaning and that meaning has an effect. In this sense, speech can act. A representative speech act defines one of the many styles of speech that cause action.

Definition

A representative speech act is an illocutionary act; the speech deals with the words' real and intended meaning, causing some kind of action. Specifically, representative speech demonstrates a speaker's belief in the words of others he is reciting. A presidential speech would be an example of this. Newscasts and religious quotations are other examples.

Types

Representative is just one type of illocutionary speech act. Others include directive, which cause the hearer to take a particular action; expressive, which shows attitudes and emotions; declaration, which can change reality from hence forward (such as marital vows and baptisms) and commissive, which moves the listener to action in the future.

History

The phrase, representative speech act, came into being in 1933 but only became widely known in 1962 when "How to Do Things with Words," by J.L. Austin was published. That book led philosophers to study language that was not obviously declarative as an indirect command.

References

• SciVerse: Pragmatic modifications on the 'representative' speech act of defining
• Perlocutionary and Illocutionary Speech Acts
• SciVerse: Performing illocutionary speech acts*1: an analysis