The second level of language that we want to discuss is speech acts.
We already saw one instance in the example of advising, when I advised you
to floss your teeth every day. But the clearest examples probably occur
in games and in ceremonies. One famous incident that occurred I
believe at a Yankee's game, was when a batter hit two strikes and three balls,
and the pitcher threw the ball near the strike zone and the batter didn't swing.
So the umpire didn't say anything. And the batter turned to the umpire and
said, well, ump, am I out or is that a walk?
And the umpire said, you ain't nothin' till I say so.
And that's the lesson of speech acts. With a speech act, you're nothin' till
you say so, because it's the saying so that makes you so.
And the rules of baseball mean that you're out and it was a strike if the
umpire says so. But you walk and it was a ball if the
umpire says so. Now, maybe the umpire should have called
a ball when he called a strike, or should have called a strike when he called a
ball. But it doesn't matter,
because he makes a mistake and calls it a strike and you're out.
So the next kind of example involves ceremonies.
Imagine that you're at a traditional wedding ceremony,
and the bride and the groom show up with an officiant at an appropriate location.
And the officiant says to the man, do you take this woman to be your lawfully
wedded wife? And he says, I d.
Then the officiant turns to the bride and says, do you take this man to be your
lawfully wedded husband? And she says, I do.
Then the officiant says, I now pronounce you husband and wife.
That's pretty cool. By uttering those words he made them
husband and wife. The words changed their relationship in a
legal way, in a religious way, and in a personal way.
All of that happened just by uttering words.
And notice also that you can use a special little word to explain this.
You can say that he thereby pronounced them husband and wife.
By uttering the words, I now pronounce you husband and wife, he thereby
pronounced them husband and wife because it was right then and there, in those
words, by means of those words that he made them husband and wife.
These words provide us with a nice general test, called the thereby test.
Here's a certain pattern of words, if I say I blank, then I thereby blank.
I blank by means of saying I blank. Now, sometimes the net blank with some
words will make sense, but it won't make sense with other words, and that'll
provide a test, because when you can fill in that blank with a verb, and it makes
sense, then that verb names a speech act. So, for example, if I say, I now
pronounce you man and wife, then I thereby pronounce you man and wife.
My speech act is pronouncing you. And if I say I apologize, I thereby
apologize. Notice that what the formula does is it
takes you from the words, which are on quotation marks, and the if clause of the
thereby test, to the world. Because when it's not inside quotation
marks on the right side of the thereby test, it refers to the world.
So when it's in quotation marks, it's about the words.
And when it's not in quotation marks on the right side, it refers to the world,
and the formula takes you from the words to the world, and that's what's tricky
about it. It's amazing that you can actually use
your words to change the world, but only in the special case of speech
acts. Of course, all of this works only in the
right circumstances. You can't just randomly walk up to any
couple on the street and say, I know pronounce you husband and wife.
Just try it. [SOUND].
Excuse me, I wanted to say something. I now pronounce you husband and wife.
Thank you. [LAUGH] Well, lucky they didn't hit me.
You obviously cannot pronounce people husband and wife if you're not an
officiate, they're not a bride and groom who have said I do.
It has to occur in the right circumstances.
And sometimes, which circumstances are the right circumstances will be very
controversial. People argue about whether a man can
marry a man or a woman can marry a woman. The ones who think that you can't think
that marriage has, as part of its appropriate circumstances, that only
people of different genders can get married.
A man can marry a woman, but can't marry another man.
Whereas other people think that a man can marry a man and a woman can marry a
woman. So it's going to be controversial which
circumstances are appropriate for a marriage ceremony.
But everybody agrees that you can't just do it randomly to any old couple on the
street. So everybody agrees that there are going
to be limits. And that the speech act works only in the
appropriate circumstances. And we can build that into the thereby
test by just adding a few words. If I say I blank in the appropriate
circumstances, then I thereby blank. But it's only in the appropriate
circumstances, that you can perform the speech act by uttering the words.
Now we can use the thereby test to pick out speech acts.
Because it works for a lot of different examples.
If I say, I promise to meet you for lunch tomorrow, in the appropriate
circumstances, then I thereby promise to meet you for lunch tomorrow.
So promising is a speech act. If I say, I thank you for inviting me to
your party, and throwing such a great party, by the way.
Then I do thereby thank you for inviting me to your party and for throwing such a
good party, by the way. So thanking is a speech act.
If I say I apologize for tripping over your legs, then I thereby apologize for
tripping over your legs. Notice as the circumstances matter in all
these cases. If I say I apologize, but I don't really
feel sorry, then I did apologize, but it was an insincere apology, because the
circumstances weren't right since I didn't have the appropriate feelings.
But I still did apologize. Now in contrast whether I promise you or
threaten you depends on whether the thing that I promise or threaten to do is
something that you want. If you want me to do it, then I'm
promising. But if you don't want me to do it, then I
might be threatening. So, your attitudes toward the thing that
I'm going to do determines whether my speech act is a promise or a threat.
In all of these cases, the circumstances are going to matter.
So in that example, the circumstances affect which speech act I perform.
But in other cases, the circumstances affect whether I really
perform any speech act at all, or fail to perform the speech act that I was trying
to. Here's an example of that.
If I say to you, I bet you that Duke will win the next national championship, and I
think Ram Neta might be foolish enough to take that bet, then what if he responds
by saying no, I won't bet you? Now, have I performed a speech act of
betting? No.
Have I performed another speech act? Not really. What have I performed?
So sometimes when the circumstances aren't right you perform a different
speech act and sometimes when the circumstances aren't right you don't
perform any speech act at all. It really is very sensitive to the
particular circumstances in which you're speaking.
But why do we care about speech acts here when we're supposed to be studying
arguments? Well that's because arguing is a speech
act. You argue with language.
It's one of those things that you do in using language in a certain way.
You're intending to provide reasons and you're providing what you take to a
reason, but to justify or explain the conclusion.
And justifying and explaining are other things that you do with language.
Those are speech acts too. So when we're studying arguments, we're
studying a particular kind of speech acts.
And that's why it makes it important to understand speech acts.
Because we need to view arguing in the context of the other speech acts that
I've just discussed. Now there's an awful lot to say about
speech acts, and I can't say it here. In these lectures, I just want to give
the idea in a very basic and simple way. If you want more detail, we have a more
extended discussion of speech acts in the accompanying book, Understanding
Arguments. But just to make sure you understand the
basics let's do a few exercises first and then in the next lecture we'll go on to
talk about conversational acts.