The female characters in Shakespeare’s 2 Henry VI and Richard III; Rowley’s All’s Lost by Lust; Fletcher’s The Tragedy of Valentinian; Rowley, Dekker, and Ford’s The Witch of Edmonton; and Brome and Heywood’s The Late Witches of Lancashire curse their enemies because, as women, they have no other way to fight against the injustices they experience. At once an extension of the early modern belief that words are “women’s weapons,” and dangerously beyond the feminine ideal of silence, the curse, as a performative speech act, resembles the physical weapons wielded by men in its potential to cause serious harm. Using Judith Butler’s theory of gender as performative and J. L. Austin’s theory of performative utterances, this thesis argues that curses function as part of the cursing woman’s performative identity, and by using speech as a weapon, the cursing woman gains a measure of social agency within the social order even if she cannot change her place within it.

abstract: This study explores the topic of Discourse Markers from an Interdisciplinary perspective. Applying the frameworks of Speech Act Theory, Syntax, Conversation Analysis, and Discourse Analysis, to empirical data, it answers the following important questions. What specific types of Speech Actions are performed in everyday Utterances? What Syntactic Mood & Clause Type is used to perform the various Speech Actions? What Discourse Markers occur in the Left-Periphery of the Clause? What Meaning-Functions do Discourse Markers perform? What interactions do Discourse Markers have with the various types of Speech Actions and with the Clause Type with which they are expressed? The results of this study contributed valuable insights to each of the aforementioned fields individually, as well as to the study of human language in general. Among these contributions are the following: Searle’s Taxonomy of Speech Acts was refined by dividing Representatives into Informing and Opinionating and Directives were divided into Commanding and Inquiring. The frequencies of the various Speech Acts relative to each other was identified. Furthermore, 79 distinct and specific Speech Actions were identified. The Speech Act type as well as the Clause Types with which they are expressed were identified. Among the many insights with respect to the interactions between the Speech Action Types and the Clause types with which they are expressed were each of the major Clause Types perform many different Speech Actions that are in addition to those normally attributed to them. Many of the particular Speech Acts are performed via various of the different Clause Types. The Indicative Clause type has the ability to perform most, if not all of the Speech Actions performed by all of the other Clause types. The 200 most frequently-occurring Left-Periphery Elements were identified and observations regarding their Word Class and the Meaning-Functions they perform were identified. The Meaning-Functions of the 10 most frequently-occurring Discourse Markers were identified and defined. The interactions between these Discourse Markers and the Speech Actions to which they attach as well as the Clause Types with which they are expressed were identified, thus documenting empirically that Discourse Markers are intricately connected to the Clause. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Linguistics and Applied Linguistics 2020

In Shakespeare’s Othello, Othello faces societal pressures of racism as he marries Senator Brabantio’s White daughter Desdemona. This creates the main plot, and the villain of the play, Iago, plots against him which leads to the destruction of Othello’s reputable character. Othello is transformed into a violent, murderous husband by Iago’s villainous ploy fueled by using racial slurs, and Othello’s final form matches the name his enemies assign him. Stripping Othello of his name and portraying him as “the Moor”, a term used to describe a category of Black persons viewed as barbaric, is a tactic used throughout time and is rooted in historical strategies for identity destruction and racism. The reader witnesses this tactic in a play written some 400 years in the past, but the problem still lingers in America where racism is commonly expressed through “Speech Acts”. Just a short time ago, Paul Robeson, a famous actor of Othello, faced these same problems while pursuing his spot on the stage. In consideration of today’s time, the movement “Say His Name” started following the death of George Floyd only two years ago, and this signifies the persistence of racism alongside the importance of names. Using slurs or refusing to use a person’s rightful name is a form of racial identity destruction witnessed from Shakespeare’s time, to Paul Robeson’s portrayal of the character, and into America’s now as the phrase “Say His Name” has become a staple in the fight against police brutality on Black persons in America.

This essay examines Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s tweets during the early phase of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The method is mixed with both quantitative and qualitative studies and is based on content analysis. The analysis reveals that Zelensky has actively utilized Twitter to convey messages to the global community during the war. This study aims to analyze Zelensky’s Twitter communication through the lens of speech act theory and specifically focuses on Searle´s classifications of speech acts. By examining the messages posted on the Twitter account @ZelenskyyUa during the specified timeframe, the study explores the types of speech acts used by Zelensky and their intended audience. The study contributes to an understanding of Zelensky’s Twitter communication strategies during times of crisis. Findings from the analysis show that Zelensky effectively utilizes Twitter to advocate, inform, and influence others, using concise messages to reach a wide audience swiftly. It also reveals that Zelensky's communication style aligns with intercultural factors, effectively conveying his messages to the intended audience.

In the current ‘Age of Apology’, public apologies have become everyday occurrences; from corporate CEOs to Hollywood celebrities to political figures, the adage of ‘never apologize, never explain’ has been eschewed in favour of ‘always apologize, always explain’. In a society where news travels at the speed of the internet, and content can go ‘viral’ in hours, there are new pressures for all public figures to apologize when things go wrong. These public apologies are available for public consumption almost immediately after an offense, released through mainstream media (e.g. broadcast news, physical/online newspapers) or, as is becoming more frequent, over social media (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram). Some researchers (e.g. Kampf, 2009; Thaler, 2012) have suggested that public apologies are not true apologies as defined by Speech Act theory – that they may serve another social function, but not to apologize. Such ‘fauxpologies’ are made without meeting the traditional felicity conditions for the speech act of apology (Ogiermann, 2009). If this is the case, what makes a public apology (in)felicitous? The aim of this thesis is to describe what makes a public apology felicitous. I present a critical analysis of the discourse strategies used in three types of public apologies – corporate, celebrity, and historical political – examining how these discursive strategies are used according to varying contextual factors using Critical Discourse Analysis and Speech Act theory as a framework. To counter the claim that the discourse strategies used in public apology do not meet the felicity conditions for the speech act of apology, I present evidence that, despite using some non-apology strategies, many public apologies are felicitous. However, I argue for the adoption of a revised set of felicity conditions as laid out by Murphy (2014, 2015), which can properly encompass public apology as a performative speech act. This study also extends the framework of semantic formulae previously used in apology analysis (Blum-Kulka & Olshtain, 1984; Olshtain & Cohen, 1983) to include ‘fauxpology’ strategies particularly useful in examining public apologies, which provides a more robust description of how public apologies are performed. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

With the increase and popularity of the use of internet, hate speech has reached wider dimensions in societies. This thesis will provide empirical examples to show the relation between speech and actions. This paper will use speech-act theory and social movement theory to portray the relation between hate speech on social media and domestic terrorism inspired by far right extremist. Even though, there has been a lot of work for counter terrorism, domestic terrorism is still overlooked. Empirical sources say that domestic terrorism poses a threat as much as international terrorism. This thesis will bring light over the connections of hate speech and domestic terrorism inspired by far right extremists. It will conclude that there is an evident relation that hate speech on social media is contributing to domestic terrorism actions encouraged by far right extremism.

Die folgende Arbeit macht es sich zur Aufgabe, die Übertragbarkeit der Sprechakttheorie nach Austin und Searle auf komplexe aktuelle politikwissenschaftliche Kommunikationssituationen zu untersuchen. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit werden die Grundlagen und Implikationen der Sprechakttheorie analysiert und erklärt. Daran anschließend erfolgt ein Transfer grundlegender Überlegungen der Sprechakttheorie auf den politikwissenschaftlichen Kontext. Hierbei soll die Übertragbarkeit der Sprechakttheorie auf komplexe politische Kommunikationsprozesse am Beispiel des performativen Selbstwiderspruchs deutlich gemacht werden. Ziel der Arbeit ist es, die Bedeutsamkeit der Sprechakttheorie anhand konkreter Beispiele differenziert zu reflektieren. Dabei soll der performative Selbstwiderspruch, der eine Verbindung zur Lehre von Austin und Searle besitzt, eine zentrale Rolle spielen.

Road signs form a non-verbal semiotic system – by many encountered on a daily basis – that dictates the actions of the users of the road, in order to create a safe and efficient traffic environment. It is clear that road signs are not just ‘saying’ things but ‘doing’ something. This study examines the commanding and performative aspects of a set of Swedish road signs. The first part of the analysis is a detailed investigation of (the ‘grammar’ of) the warning sign, drawing on a theoretical framework of semiotics and Grice’s cooperative principle. The second part investigates the speech act status of warning signs, priority signs and prohibitory signs, by applying Searle’s taxonomy of illocutionary acts. Results show that the warning triangle is not arbitrary but iconically motivated, both in color and in form, and that the silhouettes vary on a number of parameters, including the perspective of their mapping, the degree of iconicity and the degree of ‘danger reality’. Warning signs, just like verbal warnings, are best categorized as directives, whereas priority and prohibitory signs, unlike verbal prohibitions, emerge as declarations. Ultimately, this raises questions regarding the limits of and the ‘translatability’ between verbal and non-verbal language.

This essay provides an analysis of five examples of written feedback on a speech assignment completed for an English as a foreign language (EFL) class by second-year students of upper secondary school. The essay aims to shed light on how feedback is formulated and how it is interpreted as a part of a textual dialogue between teacher and student. The analysis focuses on three separate sources of data: an interview with the students, examples of feedback and a short teacher interview. This dataset provides an insight to the process of the students’ reception and interpretation of the feedback and allows an analysis of the correspondence between what the teacher tries to communicate and what the students in their turn understand from the feedback. Two theories applied in this research include 1) attribution theory and 2) speech act theory, which attempt to show how the students reflect on their achievements and apply feedback to their own development. The feedback is interpreted on two different occasions. First, the textual feedback was coded, and an analysis model was developed based on two characteristics of in-text feedback: directive and expressive functions. The findings suggest that more specific feedback should be provided, and a deeper awareness among teachers of how students interpret their feedback would aid the students’ learning process. / <p>The presentation was held online due to Corona.</p>

This essay utilizes Speech Act Theory to assess Donald Trump’s role in inciting the riot that took place in Washington D.C. on the 6th of January, 2021 and culminated with the attack on the Capitol building. For the purposes of the study a corpus was created with tweets collected from the Trump Twitter Archive. The tweets cover the span between the latest presidential election, on the 3rd of November, 2020, to the day of the attack. The corpus was read manually and sorted into themes. The themes that emerged show that: a) Trump was convinced of his victory, b) felt that the election was rigged, c) accused news networks, the Democrats and even prominent Republicans for his loss, and d) called the people for action. A quantitative method that identified the most common words in the corpus corroborated the identification of the described themes. The themes were compared to Speech Act Theory’s felicitous conditions for directive speech acts. The study found that Trump’s tweets satisfy the conditions for the successful directive speech acts of Order and Command, thus providing grounds to make the case that he was responsible for inciting the attack.