XII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2020

The contribution in the philosophy of language

John Austin did not seek to create a coherent philosophical doctrine; his main task was to clarify the expressions of ordinary language and to study the incorrect use of everyday expressions by philosophers. Austin singled out ordinary language as an object of study, sought to comprehend its phenomenon.

His early philosophical ideas consisted of dividing utterances into two groups: “ascertaining” utterances - they inform of a fact, the judgments of truth and falsity apply to them; “Performative” utterances - contain information about the action, may be successful or unsuccessful depending on the action itself.

Austin found that if you put some verbs in the position of the first person singular, they cancel the function of truth / falsity of the sentence (that is, its correspondence / inconsistency of reality), and instead they become reality. Performativities include oaths (I swear to tell the truth, only the truth and nothing but the truth), promises (the guilty child tells his father “I promise that this will never happen again”), warnings (I warn you, I will shoot), orders (I order you to surrender) . As can be seen from the above examples, a person, using performatives, does not describe certain actions, but performs them.For example, someone says "I order you to complete the task on time." If the task is completed on time, performative is successful; if not, it is unsuccessful. The success of the performative depends on a number of social conditions. In this case, the success of the order is due to the position and powers of the person who gives the order. It is clear that performative of the country's president will be more successful than performative of the primary school teachers. This remark shows one more fundamental position of Austin's theory: since the execution of an order is possible only in a society where the boss / subordinate opposition is legitimate, it can be argued that the performative always relies on social conventions.

However, as he studied the ordinary language, Austin came to the conclusion that it is rather difficult to distinguish utterances from these groups. He was never able to determine a clear criterion for division, so he concluded that all utterances are performative.

Instead, Austin formulated a more complex structure of the language, in which three levels were distinguished: locative, illocutionary, perlocutionary.

According to Austin, the locative level (lat. Locutio - “speaking”) is the pronunciation of a phrase, which includes making sounds, using of words, and the formation of communication between them according to the rules of grammar, as well as the possession of meaning.

The illocutionary level denotes the communicative purpose of the utterance for which it is pronounced. It may seem that locative acts coincide with ascertaining utterances, and illocutionary ones with performative ones. But Austin argues that it is impossible to classify a particular utterance as uniquely performative or ascertaining.

During a conversation, people at the same time commit an action that has some kind of extra-linguistic purpose. People speak not for the process of pronouncing words and enjoying sounds, but for making sentences that reflect the situation in the world.

Austin tried to systematize the characteristics of the illocutionary speech act and believed that for this it was necessary to find all the verbs that describe the actions created during the conversation, can be used to interpret the power of the utterance, the so-called illocutionary verbs.

Having studied the dictionary, Austin developed “usage classes” of illocutionary verbs in accordance with their illocutionary power:

Verdicts - any judgments, decisions;

Exercives, - expression of influence, manifestation of power;

Commissions - promises, obligations and intentions;

Behaviou - social installation;

Expositives - results of discussions, evidence, clarification of reasons.

The perlocutionary level is a combination of additional means of expression that have a conscious effect on the addressee in order to achieve the desired result.

With the help of speaking, people can achieve certain results, make changes in the world around them and in the consciousness of their interlocutor, while the outcome obtained may either correspond to the original goal of the speaker, and may not correspond. A speech act acts as a perlocutionary act, if considered in the aspect of its real consequences.

It is important that all three levels can appear simultaneously in one sentence, that is, when a locative act is carried out, the speaker at the same time carries out the illocutionary act when he asks a question, answers it, expresses his opinion or informs about something. John Austin identifies their differences for methodological purposes only. A distinctive feature of illocutionary from perlocutionary acts is the degree of impact on the listener. If the illocutionary act is limited to a warning or an order, then the perlocutionary act may include: threats, persuasion, persuasion, coercion, etc.

Here are some examples:

Of locative act: "He said that I need to read a book.";

Of illocutionary act: "He insisted that I should read the book.";

Of perlocutionary act: "He made me read a book."

References:

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._L._Austin

2) https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/austin-jl/

3) https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/JohnAustin'sTheoryofSpeechActs

4) https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thephilosophyofordinarylanguage

5) https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoamChomsky

6) https://michaeljohnsonphilosophy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/austin-how-to-do-things-with-words.pdf

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