1 00:00:02,680 --> 00:00:06,516 The second level of language that we want to discuss is speech acts. 2 00:00:06,516 --> 00:00:11,095 We already saw one instance in the example of advising, when I advised you 3 00:00:11,095 --> 00:00:15,489 to floss your teeth every day. But the clearest examples probably occur 4 00:00:15,489 --> 00:00:19,838 in games and in ceremonies. One famous incident that occurred I 5 00:00:19,838 --> 00:00:25,567 believe at a Yankee's game, was when a batter hit two strikes and three balls, 6 00:00:25,567 --> 00:00:31,520 and the pitcher threw the ball near the strike zone and the batter didn't swing. 7 00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:36,687 So the umpire didn't say anything. And the batter turned to the umpire and 8 00:00:36,687 --> 00:00:39,550 said, well, ump, am I out or is that a walk? 9 00:00:39,550 --> 00:00:42,751 And the umpire said, you ain't nothin' till I say so. 10 00:00:42,751 --> 00:00:47,459 And that's the lesson of speech acts. With a speech act, you're nothin' till 11 00:00:47,459 --> 00:00:50,975 you say so, because it's the saying so that makes you so. 12 00:00:50,975 --> 00:00:55,620 And the rules of baseball mean that you're out and it was a strike if the 13 00:00:55,620 --> 00:00:58,948 umpire says so. But you walk and it was a ball if the 14 00:00:58,948 --> 00:01:02,400 umpire says so. Now, maybe the umpire should have called 15 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:07,360 a ball when he called a strike, or should have called a strike when he called a 16 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:09,494 ball. But it doesn't matter, 17 00:01:09,494 --> 00:01:13,010 because he makes a mistake and calls it a strike and you're out. 18 00:01:13,010 --> 00:01:15,938 So the next kind of example involves ceremonies. 19 00:01:15,938 --> 00:01:19,232 Imagine that you're at a traditional wedding ceremony, 20 00:01:19,232 --> 00:01:24,174 and the bride and the groom show up with an officiant at an appropriate location. 21 00:01:24,174 --> 00:01:28,871 And the officiant says to the man, do you take this woman to be your lawfully 22 00:01:28,871 --> 00:01:30,580 wedded wife? And he says, I d. 23 00:01:30,580 --> 00:01:36,130 Then the officiant turns to the bride and says, do you take this man to be your 24 00:01:36,130 --> 00:01:39,080 lawfully wedded husband? And she says, I do. 25 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:43,366 Then the officiant says, I now pronounce you husband and wife. 26 00:01:43,366 --> 00:01:47,300 That's pretty cool. By uttering those words he made them 27 00:01:47,300 --> 00:01:51,445 husband and wife. The words changed their relationship in a 28 00:01:51,445 --> 00:01:55,028 legal way, in a religious way, and in a personal way. 29 00:01:55,028 --> 00:01:58,120 All of that happened just by uttering words. 30 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:03,167 And notice also that you can use a special little word to explain this. 31 00:02:03,167 --> 00:02:07,575 You can say that he thereby pronounced them husband and wife. 32 00:02:07,575 --> 00:02:12,623 By uttering the words, I now pronounce you husband and wife, he thereby 33 00:02:12,623 --> 00:02:18,168 pronounced them husband and wife because it was right then and there, in those 34 00:02:18,168 --> 00:02:22,790 words, by means of those words that he made them husband and wife. 35 00:02:22,790 --> 00:02:28,210 These words provide us with a nice general test, called the thereby test. 36 00:02:28,210 --> 00:02:35,887 Here's a certain pattern of words, if I say I blank, then I thereby blank. 37 00:02:35,887 --> 00:02:42,404 I blank by means of saying I blank. Now, sometimes the net blank with some 38 00:02:42,404 --> 00:02:47,901 words will make sense, but it won't make sense with other words, and that'll 39 00:02:47,901 --> 00:02:53,983 provide a test, because when you can fill in that blank with a verb, and it makes 40 00:02:53,983 --> 00:02:59,113 sense, then that verb names a speech act. So, for example, if I say, I now 41 00:02:59,113 --> 00:03:04,170 pronounce you man and wife, then I thereby pronounce you man and wife. 42 00:03:04,170 --> 00:03:11,135 My speech act is pronouncing you. And if I say I apologize, I thereby 43 00:03:11,135 --> 00:03:14,989 apologize. Notice that what the formula does is it 44 00:03:14,989 --> 00:03:20,579 takes you from the words, which are on quotation marks, and the if clause of the 45 00:03:20,579 --> 00:03:25,177 thereby test, to the world. Because when it's not inside quotation 46 00:03:25,177 --> 00:03:30,130 marks on the right side of the thereby test, it refers to the world. 47 00:03:30,130 --> 00:03:33,586 So when it's in quotation marks, it's about the words. 48 00:03:33,586 --> 00:03:38,674 And when it's not in quotation marks on the right side, it refers to the world, 49 00:03:38,674 --> 00:03:43,827 and the formula takes you from the words to the world, and that's what's tricky 50 00:03:43,827 --> 00:03:46,958 about it. It's amazing that you can actually use 51 00:03:46,958 --> 00:03:51,523 your words to change the world, but only in the special case of speech 52 00:03:51,523 --> 00:03:54,458 acts. Of course, all of this works only in the 53 00:03:54,458 --> 00:03:58,307 right circumstances. You can't just randomly walk up to any 54 00:03:58,307 --> 00:04:02,677 couple on the street and say, I know pronounce you husband and wife. 55 00:04:02,677 --> 00:04:06,229 Just try it. [SOUND]. 56 00:04:06,229 --> 00:04:13,488 Excuse me, I wanted to say something. I now pronounce you husband and wife. 57 00:04:13,488 --> 00:04:18,360 Thank you. [LAUGH] Well, lucky they didn't hit me. 58 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:23,786 You obviously cannot pronounce people husband and wife if you're not an 59 00:04:23,786 --> 00:04:28,233 officiate, they're not a bride and groom who have said I do. 60 00:04:28,233 --> 00:04:31,473 It has to occur in the right circumstances. 61 00:04:31,473 --> 00:04:37,126 And sometimes, which circumstances are the right circumstances will be very 62 00:04:37,126 --> 00:04:40,969 controversial. People argue about whether a man can 63 00:04:40,969 --> 00:04:46,821 marry a man or a woman can marry a woman. The ones who think that you can't think 64 00:04:46,821 --> 00:04:51,584 that marriage has, as part of its appropriate circumstances, that only 65 00:04:51,584 --> 00:04:54,621 people of different genders can get married. 66 00:04:54,621 --> 00:04:58,211 A man can marry a woman, but can't marry another man. 67 00:04:58,211 --> 00:05:03,595 Whereas other people think that a man can marry a man and a woman can marry a 68 00:05:03,595 --> 00:05:07,689 woman. So it's going to be controversial which 69 00:05:07,689 --> 00:05:11,404 circumstances are appropriate for a marriage ceremony. 70 00:05:11,404 --> 00:05:16,976 But everybody agrees that you can't just do it randomly to any old couple on the 71 00:05:16,976 --> 00:05:20,278 street. So everybody agrees that there are going 72 00:05:20,278 --> 00:05:24,062 to be limits. And that the speech act works only in the 73 00:05:24,062 --> 00:05:28,534 appropriate circumstances. And we can build that into the thereby 74 00:05:28,534 --> 00:05:33,212 test by just adding a few words. If I say I blank in the appropriate 75 00:05:33,212 --> 00:05:37,725 circumstances, then I thereby blank. But it's only in the appropriate 76 00:05:37,725 --> 00:05:42,320 circumstances, that you can perform the speech act by uttering the words. 77 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:45,904 Now we can use the thereby test to pick out speech acts. 78 00:05:45,904 --> 00:05:49,040 Because it works for a lot of different examples. 79 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:53,457 If I say, I promise to meet you for lunch tomorrow, in the appropriate 80 00:05:53,457 --> 00:05:57,810 circumstances, then I thereby promise to meet you for lunch tomorrow. 81 00:05:57,810 --> 00:06:02,573 So promising is a speech act. If I say, I thank you for inviting me to 82 00:06:02,573 --> 00:06:06,300 your party, and throwing such a great party, by the way. 83 00:06:06,300 --> 00:06:11,961 Then I do thereby thank you for inviting me to your party and for throwing such a 84 00:06:11,961 --> 00:06:16,396 good party, by the way. So thanking is a speech act. 85 00:06:16,396 --> 00:06:23,518 If I say I apologize for tripping over your legs, then I thereby apologize for 86 00:06:23,518 --> 00:06:28,237 tripping over your legs. Notice as the circumstances matter in all 87 00:06:28,237 --> 00:06:31,443 these cases. If I say I apologize, but I don't really 88 00:06:31,443 --> 00:06:36,129 feel sorry, then I did apologize, but it was an insincere apology, because the 89 00:06:36,129 --> 00:06:40,629 circumstances weren't right since I didn't have the appropriate feelings. 90 00:06:40,629 --> 00:06:44,760 But I still did apologize. Now in contrast whether I promise you or 91 00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:49,569 threaten you depends on whether the thing that I promise or threaten to do is 92 00:06:49,569 --> 00:06:53,083 something that you want. If you want me to do it, then I'm 93 00:06:53,083 --> 00:06:56,241 promising. But if you don't want me to do it, then I 94 00:06:56,241 --> 00:07:00,022 might be threatening. So, your attitudes toward the thing that 95 00:07:00,022 --> 00:07:04,610 I'm going to do determines whether my speech act is a promise or a threat. 96 00:07:04,610 --> 00:07:08,500 In all of these cases, the circumstances are going to matter. 97 00:07:08,500 --> 00:07:13,588 So in that example, the circumstances affect which speech act I perform. 98 00:07:13,588 --> 00:07:17,849 But in other cases, the circumstances affect whether I really 99 00:07:17,849 --> 00:07:23,511 perform any speech act at all, or fail to perform the speech act that I was trying 100 00:07:23,511 --> 00:07:25,513 to. Here's an example of that. 101 00:07:25,513 --> 00:07:31,175 If I say to you, I bet you that Duke will win the next national championship, and I 102 00:07:31,175 --> 00:07:36,767 think Ram Neta might be foolish enough to take that bet, then what if he responds 103 00:07:36,767 --> 00:07:41,390 by saying no, I won't bet you? Now, have I performed a speech act of 104 00:07:41,390 --> 00:07:42,170 betting? No. 105 00:07:42,170 --> 00:07:46,472 Have I performed another speech act? Not really. What have I performed? 106 00:07:46,472 --> 00:07:50,883 So sometimes when the circumstances aren't right you perform a different 107 00:07:50,883 --> 00:07:55,174 speech act and sometimes when the circumstances aren't right you don't 108 00:07:55,174 --> 00:07:59,102 perform any speech act at all. It really is very sensitive to the 109 00:07:59,102 --> 00:08:02,123 particular circumstances in which you're speaking. 110 00:08:02,123 --> 00:08:06,776 But why do we care about speech acts here when we're supposed to be studying 111 00:08:06,776 --> 00:08:09,798 arguments? Well that's because arguing is a speech 112 00:08:09,798 --> 00:08:11,340 act. You argue with language. 113 00:08:11,340 --> 00:08:15,240 It's one of those things that you do in using language in a certain way. 114 00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:19,357 You're intending to provide reasons and you're providing what you take to a 115 00:08:19,357 --> 00:08:21,957 reason, but to justify or explain the conclusion. 116 00:08:21,957 --> 00:08:25,911 And justifying and explaining are other things that you do with language. 117 00:08:25,911 --> 00:08:29,621 Those are speech acts too. So when we're studying arguments, we're 118 00:08:29,621 --> 00:08:32,100 studying a particular kind of speech acts. 119 00:08:32,100 --> 00:08:35,819 And that's why it makes it important to understand speech acts. 120 00:08:35,819 --> 00:08:40,364 Because we need to view arguing in the context of the other speech acts that 121 00:08:40,364 --> 00:08:43,787 I've just discussed. Now there's an awful lot to say about 122 00:08:43,787 --> 00:08:48,176 speech acts, and I can't say it here. In these lectures, I just want to give 123 00:08:48,176 --> 00:08:53,181 the idea in a very basic and simple way. If you want more detail, we have a more 124 00:08:53,181 --> 00:08:57,869 extended discussion of speech acts in the accompanying book, Understanding 125 00:08:57,869 --> 00:09:01,100 Arguments. But just to make sure you understand the 126 00:09:01,100 --> 00:09:06,296 basics let's do a few exercises first and then in the next lecture we'll go on to 127 00:09:06,296 --> 00:09:08,260 talk about conversational acts.