Securitization is the move in which an issue is argued to pose an existential threat to a referent object. Speech acts are considered to be the starting point for the securitization of an issue. This thesis viewed governmental counter-terrorism strategies as potential carriers of speech acts - hence the strategies could constitute the start of terrorism becoming securitized by a government. By using a generic speech act typology created by Stritzel, which combines critical discourse analysis with the securitization theory on Swedish and British counter-terrorism strategies, the thesis identifies a speech act in the most recent British strategy. The second finding is that in the case where the speech act occurred, the human rights discourse was significantly lower, compared to the cases where no speech act occurred. The thesis also provides suggestions for future research on the topic of speech acts.

Given that public television is involved in the public and political life of our society, we believe that it should be necessary to study the debating skills of moderators and especially their role in stimulating public discussion. We explored the role of the moderator, socio-professional aspects of the profession, with emphasis on the study of verbal expression and specific speech acts, which are used in specific discourse. The aim of the study of the public television moderator's communication strategies is to focus on language skills, competences and facilities in terms of moderators defending the public interest - start from the Act on Czech Television and Czech Television Codex. We focused on specific techniques and strategies of the moderator's discourse. We investigated how the induction of the host achieves cooperation and clarity in communication, as well as how the moderator achieves a minimum of manipulative or persuasive communication. Moderators should in particular avoid any signs of manipulative or persuasive rhetoric, and they should be able to recognise this. For this they may use the entire system of the language and all types of speech acts.

This study aims to find out the culturally different conceptualizations of congratulation in British culture and tebrik and kutlama in Turkish culture using a corpus approach and to formulate cultural scripts for these three performative verbs using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage Approach. More specifically, the study aims to reveal the contexts where the target speech act is used and to uncover the kinds of strategies/components employed in these situations. To be able to collect the targeted data, the study begins with the monolingual and bilingual dictionary definitions of the performative verbs (i.e., congratulate, tebrik etmek and kutlamak) and then follows a corpus approach whereby the performative verbs and their various lexical forms are searched for in various corpora (i.e., BYU-BNC, MTC, Google). In total, 47 dictionaries are looked up and 442 contexts of congratulation, 339 contexts of tebrik and 348 contexts of kutlama are collected from the newspaper and blog genres in the three corpora. The analyses of the data aim to uncover the qualitative and quantitative features of congratulation, tebrik and kutlama in British and Turkish cultures. The results of the study show that there are some cultural differences as well as similarities in the conceptualization of the speech act of congratulation in terms of its contexts of use and strategies. The findings also demonstrate the usefulness of the corpus approach in studying speech acts and their conceptualisation. The thesis aims to contribute to the areas of foreign language education, intercultural/cross-cultural communication and pragmatics.

溝通式語言教學(CLT)的原則和特色自從1995年就被帶進台灣高中英文教科書的編纂。在溝通能力的四個構成要素之中，社會語言能力是成功溝通的關鍵而且能夠經由語言行為的使用被展現出來。因此，本研究旨在探測語言行為教學在台灣英文教科書中是如何被呈現的。首先，五個最常被使用及研究的語言行為─恭維、請求、道歉、抱怨以及拒絕─在台灣最受歡迎的兩套高中英文教科書─遠東和三民─之對話中出現的次數被統計。然後，對話中主要運用到的觀點，美國的或中國的，以及教科書和教師手冊中的跨文化對照跟比較被檢視。最後，以跨文化的角度分析常和語言行為一起出現的支持性話語以及閒聊，同時，教科書和教師手冊是否有相關的解釋也被探索。 研究結果顯示，五種語言行為當中的大多數在兩套教科書中並沒有被平均地分佈，而以該五種語言行為的呈現手法來看，遠東版教科書在比例上運用較多的中國式觀點，然而三民版教科書在比例上則運用較多的美國式觀點。但是，無論兩套教科書較偏向哪一種觀點，在教科書以及其對應的教師手冊中幾乎沒有跨文化的對照和比較。至於支持性話語和閒聊的呈現方式，研究結果顯示遠東版教科書在恭維、請求和抱怨這三種語言行為的支持性話語和閒聊的呈現並不多，而三民版教科書在請求和抱怨這兩種語言行為的支持性話語和閒聊的呈現也不多，無法提供學生充足的練習機會，同時，就算有支持性話語和閒聊出現在語言行為中，在教科書跟其對應的教師手冊中仍然沒有進一步的解釋以指出美國人跟中國人在使用上的文化差異。基於本研究的研究結果，獲得之教學啟示如後。首先，雖然台灣的高中英文教科書，至少遠東版跟三民版，還沒如此地嚴肅看待語言行為教學，但對於老師來說，向學生介紹語言行為的知識卻是相當重要的，因為如此一來，方能使他們學習如何更有效地與人溝通。再者，身為一位台灣的英文老師，既然語言行為以及伴隨的支持性話語和閒聊在教科書或教師手冊當中，幾乎沒有或很少有跨文化差異性的解釋存在，增加我們語言行為教學的知識就變成了一項不可或缺的事。此外，台灣教科書的出版者應該反省教科書中對話部份的適當呈現方式，使老師能經由語言行為教學的實施改善同學的社會語言能力。最後，本研究當中被用來分析語言行為呈現所運用的主要的觀點(美國的或中國的)之分類系統，不僅對於未來針對台灣其它版本教科書做類似研究的研究者有幫助，也提供第一線教師評判教科書中對話結構呈現適當與否之標準，同時也將語言行為教學的背景知識灌輸給第一線教師。 / The principles and characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) have been brought into senior high school English textbooks editing in Taiwan since 1995. Among the four components of communicative competence, sociolinguistic competence is the key to successful communication and can be shown through the use of speech acts. This study, therefore, intended to probe into how speech act teaching is carried out in senior high school English textbooks in Taiwan. Firstly, the frequency of the five much used and explored speech acts—compliment, request, apology, complaint, and refusal—in the conversation part of two sets of the most popular senior high school English textbooks in Taiwan—Textbook F and Textbook S—was counted. Then, the preference, American or Chinese, as well as cross-cultural comparisons and contrasts in both the textbooks and teachers’ manuals, were examined. Lastly, the common co-occurring phenomenon of supportive moves and small talk in speech acts was analyzed cross-culturally and related explanations in both the textbooks and teachers’ manuals were investigated as well. The results showed that most of the five speech acts were not appropriately distributed in both sets of the textbooks, and that Textbook F offered much more Chinese preference than American one, while Textbook S provided proportionately more American preference than Chinese one, in presenting the five speech acts. However, no matter which preference both sets of textbooks favored, there were almost no cross-cultural comparisons and contrasts made in the textbooks or their corresponding teachers’ manuals. As to the presentation of supportive moves and small talk, the findings showed that Textbook F did not present enough supportive moves and small talk in the speech acts of compliment, request, and complaint, and that Textbook S did not display enough supportive moves and small talk in the speech acts of request and complaint for students to learn from, and if supportive moves or small talk were presented, there were still no further explanations in the textbooks or their corresponding teachers’ manuals to point out cultural differences between American and Chinese usage. With regard to the findings in this study, some pedagogical implications are provided. Firstly, although the senior high school English textbooks in Taiwan, at least Textbook F and Textbook S, have not taken speech act teaching so seriously, it is quite important for teachers to introduce the knowledge of speech acts to make students learn how to communicate more effectively. Secondly, as an English teacher in Taiwan, increasing our knowledge of speech act teaching becomes a ‘must’ since there are no or few explanations of cross-cultural differences of speech acts and their supportive moves or small talk in the textbooks or teachers’ manuals. Thirdly, textbook publishers in Taiwan should reflect upon the appropriate way to present the conversation part in textbooks to improve students’ sociolinguistic competence through speech act teaching. Last but not least, the coding scheme used for analyzing the preference, American or Chinese one, in this research, can not only be helpful to future researchers conducting similar studies on other sets of textbooks in Taiwan, but also offer teachers criteria to make judgments on the organization of the conversation part in textbooks and provide them the background knowledge of speech act teaching at the same time.

Cette recherche étudie le développement de la compréhension de l’ironie (traitements cognitifs, traitements émotionnels et jugements émotionnels) chez les enfants âgés de 8 à 11 ans. Quatre études ont été menées sur la même population avec le même matériel de recueil de données. Premièrement, nous avons créé et validé une échelle de traitements cognitifs composée de trois capacités graduellement acquises. Cet outil nous a permis de montrer, d’une part, que la compréhension cognitive du compliment ironique s’élabore entre 8 et 11 ans, alors que celle de la critique ironique émerge avant 8 ans. D’autre part, il existe une asymétrie de compréhension cognitive selon la nature de l’ironie (compliment ou critique). Deuxièmement, nous avons étudié les interprétations des fonctions (humour, méchanceté, gentillesse) de l’ironie effectuées par les enfants qui la comprennent. Pour cela, nous avons pris en compte à la fois les traitements émotionnels (attribution d’intention au locuteur) et les jugements émotionnels (jugement du locuteur). Quels que soient l’âge et la nature de l’ironie, les interprétations agressives de l’ironie sont fréquentes. En situation de compliment ironique, les interprétations humoristiques et gentilles sont de moins en moins fréquentes entre 8 et 11 ans. En revanche, en situation de critique ironique, aucune interprétation ne se développe durant cette période. Troisièmement, nous avons mis en évidence trois facteurs sous-jacents aux traitements de l’ironie. Les facteurs humoristique et cognitif se développent différemment selon la nature de l’ironie, contrairement au facteur affectif. Quatrièmement, une perspective différentielle a permis de mettre en évidence trois profils d’enfants observateurs de l’ironie qui se distinguent sur les trois traitements étudiés. Les facteurs cognitifs et conatifs explorés n’expliquent pas les différences entre les profils. Ces profils pourraient être expliqués par les expériences sociales, le tempérament ou encore le développement cognitif et émotionnel. / This research deals with the development of irony understanding (cognitive treatments, emotional treatments and emotional judgments) among children aged 8 to 11 years old. Four independent studies were led on the same population with the same material of data collection. In the first place, we created and validated a scale of cognitive understanding made up of three levels of gradually acquired skills. This tool enable us to show, on one hand, that the cognitive understanding of the ironic compliment develops between 8 and 11 years, while that of the ironic criticism begins before the age of 8. On the other hand, there is an asymmetry of cognitive understanding according to the nature of the irony (compliment or criticism). Secondly, we studied the interpretations of the functions (funniness, meanness, niceness) of irony made by the children who understand it. For that purpose, we took into account at the same time the emotional treatments (attribution of intention to the speaker) and emotional judgments (judgment of the speaker). Whatever the age and the nature of the irony, the aggressive interpretations of the irony are frequent. In situation of ironic compliment, the funny and kind interpretations are less and less frequent between 8 and 11 years. On the other hand, in situation of ironic criticism, no interpretation develops during this period. Thirdly, we highlighted three underlying factors of ironic treatments. The humoristic and cognitive factors develop differently according to the nature of the irony, contrary to the emotional factor. Fourthly, a differential perspective study reveals three profiles of irony observers which distinguish themselves on each of the treatments studied. The cognitive and conative factors explored do not explain the differences between the profiles. However, these profiles could be explained by social experiences, temperament or cognitive and emotional development.

Depuis les années 20 du siècle précédent, les recherches effectuées dans le champ de la didactique des langues non maternelles ont enregistré l’apparition d’un public spécifique demandeur de formations en langue à des fins spécifiques. Cela a donné lieu à un domaine qui se distingue par la grande diversité de ses contextes ainsi que de ses publics, un domaine qui porte sur un jeu de désignations ou sur une jungle d’appellations qui se confondent pratiquement toutes. C’est dans le but de faire acquérir à ces publics des compétences langagières spécifiques utiles dans la pratique de leur travail qu’enseignants et chercheurs sont appelés à créer des démarches méthodologiques spécifiques.Cette thèse cherche, plus particulièrement, à apporter des éléments de réponse aux demandes des étudiants de la faculté des sciences de la santé, en Syrie, qui ont besoin d’apprendre le français médical et non le français général pour s’en servir plus tard dans leur profession. L’objectif principal de ce travail est, d’une part, d’identifier les besoins réels de ces apprenants en prenant en compte les spécificités de leur domaine et d’autre part, de concevoir un référentiel de formation FOS susceptible de contribuer au développement d’une compétence de communication spécifique appropriée aux exigences de leur terrain socioprofessionnel. / Research performed since the twenties in the field of didactics of foreign languages, helped the rise of a certain audience with specific requests in professional language. That gave rise to a domain, which is composed of an important diversity of contexts and publics called "French for Specific Purposes". Teachers and researchers are brought to create specific methodological approach, to help this audience gain specific linguistic skills.This thesis aims at bringing elements of answer to the students of the syrian scientific colleges, particularly to those of the Faculty of Health Sciences. Our purpose is to identify the real needs of the latter, taking into account peculiarities of their domain and to conceive teacher-training frame of reference allowing them to develop oral and written comprehension and expression skills.

Le présent travail constitue une tentative d’interpréter la manière dont le concept du viol émerge comme catégorie pénale, en partant de la réflexion menée par le Pseudo-Quintilien autour du raptus à la fin du Ier et au début du IIe siècle. Ce sont les mécanismes d’édification de la terminologie juridique qui prend en compte le contexte social, et plus concrètement, le degré d’élaboration conceptuelle auquel la jurisprudence sévérienne parviendra un siècle plus tard à l’égard de la qualification du raptus comme crimen vis. À la différence de ses prédécesseurs (déclamateurs et juristes), le Pseudo-Quintilien comprend sous la dénomination du raptus le commerce sexuel illicite (stuprum), commis avec violence (per vim), contre la volonté de la victime qui subit un préjudice corporel et psychique (iniuria). Le rhéteur aborde cette pratique illicite mais non pas encore illégale au stade pré-délictuel, et l’érige en un crimen, en l’inscrivant implicitement dans la procédure de vi publica, afin de dénoncer la tolérance sociale de la violence infligée à une vierge / épouse de condition libre à des fins sexuelles et / ou matrimoniales. En partant des Déclamations mineures qui portent sur le viol, et qui n’ont pas été étudiées de manière systématique comme preuve historique indirecte de la réalité du phénomène aux premiers siècles du Principat, nous examinons le raptus comme crime de violence (crimen vis), reposant sur le préjudice pour atteinte à l’intégrité physique et morale (iniuria) d’une vierge / épouse de condition libre. Faute de témoignages directs sur la réalité antique des femmes violées, nous déplaçons l’intérêt vers l’origine du processus culturel, qui caractérise la vie des citoyennes nubiles : le contexte de la formation de l’aristocratie masculine, qui crée les identités féminines en matière de viol. En faisant valoir la performance de la persona du Pseudo-Quintilien, nous proposons une interprétation du raptus, en conformité avec la perspective du genre, comme phénomène juridique et social, qui engage les relations entre sexes / statuts / classes, et qui influe sur la réalité sociale par son acte de dire. / The present work is an attempt to interpret the way in which the concept of rape emerges as a criminal category, starting from the reflection conducted by the Pseudo-Quintilian on the notion of raptus at the end of the 1st and the beginning of the 2nd century. It is a question of the mechanisms of building legal terminology which take into account the social context and, more concretely, that of the degree of conceptual elaboration to which the Roman jurisprudence under the Severan emperors will come a century later with regard to the qualification of the raptus as crimen vis. Unlike its predecessors (declaimers and jurists), Pseudo-Quintilian understands under the denomination of raptus the illicit sexual act (stuprum), committed with violence (per vim), against the will of the victim who suffers corporeal and moral injury (iniuria). Pseudo-Quintilian addresses this unlawful but not yet illegal practice at the pre-criminal stage, and sets it up as a crimen by implicitly inscribing it in the procedure of vi publica in order to denounce the social tolerance of violence inflicted on a virgin / wife of free status for sexual and / or matrimonial purposes. Starting from the Minor Declamations on rape, which have not been systematically studied as indirect historical evidence of the phenomenon in the first centuries of the Roman Empire, we examine raptus as a crime of violence (crimen vis), based on damage to the physical and moral integrity (iniuria) of a virgin / wife of free status. In the absence of direct testimony on the ancient reality of women who have been raped, we are shifting the interest in the origin of the cultural process which characterizes the life of nubile citizens, i.e. the educational context of Roman patricians which creates female identities with regard to rape. By emphasizing the performance of Pseudo-Quintilian’s persona, we propose a gendered interpretation of raptus as a legal and social phenomenon which engages relations between sexes / status / social classes, and which influences the social reality by its act of enunciation.

The research conducted within the linguistic subdiscipline of language and gender was carried out as early as in the 1970’s, when Lakoff (1975) identified nine main traits for female language. Based on Lakoff’s research, this project investigates Swedish students’ attitudes to and perceptions of gender stereotypes in speech. The aim of this study is to examine the attitudes and perceptions of the participants and to investigate if there has been a change in the way a speaker interprets a speech act in comparison to the 1970’s. A survey was carried out in order to be able to identify and elicit the attitudes and perceptions of stereotypical gender speech of the participants. The survey was based on the traits that Lakoff (1975) found to be typical for female speech. The survey consisted of a first part where the participant had to identify the gender of the speaker and a second part where the participants were asked about typical gender stereotypes in speech acts. The main finding was that Swedish students have a negative attitude toward filing individuals in categories based on their gender. In addition, it was found that the participants have unconscious prejudices toward both men and women based on learnt gender patterns. In conclusion, this study has shown the pattern that there has been an attitude change toward gender stereotypes since the 1970’s. However, it revealed that the students in Sweden participating in the study have a tendency to unconsciously apply gender stereotypes when interpreting a speech act.

It is by now a truth universally acknowledged that the world’s subaltern women (in Gayatri Spivak’s understanding of the term) cannot make their voices heard, that what we think we know about them are mostly stereotypes of our own making. It is likewise acknowledged that literature has a privileged status when it comes to representing these women, given its unique prerogative to retrieve their traces and convey their subjectivity through imagining. Literary texts which embark on this task can be seen as symbolic speech acts and, as such, they depend upon their illocutionary force for success in the public sphere. In this thesis I have chosen to discuss The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka (2011) – a novel I perceive as a collective speech act – from the combined perspective of speech-act criticism (J. L. Austin, S. Petrey), subaltern studies (G. Spivak, G. Pandey) and feminist theory (M. P. Lara, S. Lanser). My analysis explores the interrelation between this little-known story of the first-generation Japanese women immigrants to the US and the sophisticated narrative strategy which sustains it, continually balancing between the women's heterogeneity and their shared experiences, especially their systematic silencing by the dominant population. Finally, the thesis discusses the novel’s larger illocutionary implications for the public sphere, in particular how the reclaiming of the past creates new understandings of the present as well as opens up onto the future.               Keywords: Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic, migrant literature, picture brides, subalternity, feminist theory, communal voice, speech-act criticism, illocutionary force.

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate what linguistic meanings the concept of quality is imbued with in different educational arenas and to discuss the consequences of such meanings for education. From this aim the main research question is: What does the concept of quality do to education and what does education do to the concept of quality? The question indicates an interest in understanding how the concept of quality and education mutually influence each other. The empirical material consists of national texts written by the government and the national school authorities, mainly between the years of 1997 to 2008, as well as interviews with different people from three local school authorities and schools. Theoretically the approach is inspired by Quentin Skinner and speech-act theory as well as Reinhart  Koselleck and conceptual history. While Skinner is mainly interested in the rhetorical use of concepts, Koselleck’s interest lies in investigating how concepts carry historical time. For this study, some analytical concepts are lifted from these two theories and are applied to the empirical material. From the analysis, four concluding criteria of application are formulated: education quality, result quality, market quality and system quality. The result shows that certain meanings, which for a long time have been connected to education and, in this study, are incorporated under the umbrella criterion education quality, have been challenged and partly  marginalized. Instead, the dominance of result quality, market quality and system quality lead to an acceptance of new social perceptions in education. The different national and local structures that are developed to measure quality have a high impact on local practice. As a consequence of a shift from goal to result, overriding goals are clarified and made juridically controllable. The changes also lead to consequences for the different actors in the education system, as well as for teachers, national politicians and for national and local school administrations.