Abstract
Language is considered to be a product of social contact. Language or linguistic acts that intend to influence the reality are generally known as ‘Speech Acts’. The idea of Speech Acts finds its roots in the Philosophy of Language. Models of communication often give it very little function. On the one hand, the present study throws light on the contribution made by J.L. Austin and John R. Searle in the field of Speech Acts and Speech Act Theory, and on the other it highlights the significant contrasts in the speech acts in Urdu (an Indo-Aryan language spoken widely due to South Asian Diaspora) and English (Indo-European language) with regard to sex, level of formality, structure and frequency etc. The study focuses on the intentions of the speakers and their utterances (illocutionary, locutionary and perlocutionary aspects of Speech Acts). Fifty informants have been taken in the study and their utterances have been analyzed. The present study will be a valuable addition in the pragmatic field of language study.
1. What are speech acts?
Modern linguistics has been referred to as the study of language as a system of human communication. A main observation is that language can be used not only to describe the reality but also to change the existing reality. In simple words it can be asserted ‘to speak is to act’. Linguistic acts that intend to influence the reality are commonly called speech acts. Speech acts play an important role in effective communication; these acts are functional units in communication.
Language can be used not just to talk about, but also to do things. Such acts performed by language have been called speech acts, and the verbs used are known as speech act or performative verbs. Speech acts have been divided into those in which a performative verb actually appears (they are called explicit) and those which do not have one in their surface structure (called primary).
The speech acts used in conversations can be divided into three basic categories:
Meta-interactive acts concern the organization of the conversation itself, i.e. the marking of beginnings and endings (examples: now, right); the opening or closing of a conversation (e.g. hello; bye) or the structuring of the conversation in some way (Sorry, I'm afraid I must go now). Turn-taking acts are used to pass on, hold, or obtain the floor in public speaking (what do you think?; if I may just finish this; could I come in on this?). Interactive acts consist of eliciting acts, which require some linguistic response, like asking for information, a decision, agreement, or the clarification or repetition of an utterance; informing acts, which offer information or respond in other ways to eliciting acts, like agreeing, confirming, qualifying or rejecting; acknowledging acts, which provide positive or negative follow-up or feedback, directing acts, which ask for an immediate or future action.
1.1 Direct and indirect speech acts:
Speech acts can also be classified based on the directness of an utterance. A direct speech act is an act in which the illocutionary force is built into the structure of the sentence. For example, with the utterance “stop making noise”, the hearer understands the illocution in the utterance to be a directive without much difficulty or misunderstanding. Indirect ways of getting things done by language are called indirect speech acts. For example, if you are sitting at the only fast computer in the department ten minutes before nine and a colleague comes in and asks 'Are you teaching at nine?', the question is what does he want? When you answer 'No, I am not' and he goes away without saying anything else it is likely that he wanted to get on the computer to do his work but did not want to ask you directly. Another indirect way to ask would be 'Are you going to be long?’ which also avoids the direct question 'Can I get on the computer?
1.2 J.L. Austin:
The British philosopher J.L. Austin was the first to draw attention to the many functions performed by utterances as a part of interpersonal communication. In particular he pointed out that many utterances do not communicate information, but are equivalent to actions. He called these utterances performatives different from information. According to Austin (1962), linguistic acts fall into three categories:
- Locutionary
- Perlocutionary
- Illocutionary
Locutionary acts
Locutionary acts are acts that are performed in order to communicate; the act of actually uttering (the particular sense and reference of an utterance) their study is the domain of fields like phonetics, phonology, syntax and linguistic semantics.
Perlocutionary act
Perlocutionary act is the act performed by saying something in a particular context. It represents the change achieved each time, in a particular context. Depending on the kind of per locution, different conditions have to hold in order for it to be achieved. These acts are the by-products of acts of communication, acts performed by means of saying something, moving someone to anger, consoling some one in his distress, etc.
Illocutionary acts
Illocutionary acts, more commonly known as speech acts, are acts performed in saying something: making a statement or promise, issuing a command or request, asking a question etc. The act performed in, or by virtue of, the performance of the illocution. The illocutionary act is not in one to one correspondence with the locution from which it is derived. There are different locutions that express the illocution and vice versa.
Austin (1962) concludes that utterances in general have the following related features: (1) felicity conditions; (1a) illocutionary force; (2) truth value; and (2a) locutionary meaning (sense and reference). One difference between illocutionary and perlocutionary acts is that while the former are directly involved in the act of producing an utterance, the latter are less central to the act (Austin, 1962). These speech acts are used systematically to accomplish particular communicative purposes. Austin focused on the third of these acts. He emphasizes his claim that only the verb used to describe illocutions can be used as performative verbs.
1.3 John. R. Searle:
Searle (1975) states that the taxonomy used by Austin is defective, especially in its lack of clear criteria for distinguishing one kind of illocutionary force from another, though Austin’s categories exhibit different syntactical properties, there is no clear or consistent principle or set of principles on the basis of which Fraser’s and Austin’s taxonomies are constructed. According to Searle, a speech act is defined as an action changing the universe of discourse when a speaker utters it and a recipient grasps it. It may be oral as well as written, or even expressed via some other communication from such as sign language. Searle (1975) divides speech acts into five basic types:
Assertives:
An assertive is a speech act the purpose of which is to convey information about some states of affairs of the world from the speaker to the hearer (boast, complain, conclude, deduce, describe, call, classify, identify). For example:
The founder of Pakistan is Qaid-i-Azam.
Kim Day Chung was the former president of South Korea.
Directives:
A directive is a speech act, where the speaker requests the hearer to carry out some action or to bring about some states of affair (ask, order, command, request, beg, plead, pray, entreat, invite, permit, and advise). For example:
You can finish you work and go to bazaar.
She can complete and submit the file.
Commissives:
A Commissive is a speech act, the purpose of which is to commit the speaker to carry out action or to bring about some state of affairs (promise, pledge, and vow). For example:
I will finish the work and go to bazaar.
She will come here and take me with her.
Expressives:
An expressive is a speech act, the purpose of which is to express the speaker’s attitude to some state of affairs (thank, congratulate, apologize, condole, deplore, welcome). For example:
I like the ideas presented in this conference.
I feel sorry for all this.
Declaratives:
A declarative is speech act, where the speaker brings about some state of affairs by the mere performance of the speech act (declare, bequeath, appoint, excommunicate). For example:
The paper for the Busan conference is accepted.
Tania was baptized.
Heringer (1972) points out that Searle is probably wrong in saying that all felicity conditions are conventional. He is of the opinion that they are natural. For example, a condition that a speaker requesting something to be done must intend for that thing to be done is naturalistic rather than conventionalist.
1.4 Speech act theory
Searle has been credited with the speech act theory. A speech act is an utterance that functions as a functional unit in communication i.e. language performs communicative acts. It serves as the minimal unit of analysis. Speech acts are conditioned by rules of conduct and interpretation.
Speech act theory, even though influential in a number of fields, has not been without its critics. A number of researchers criticized it because their findings were based mainly on simulated speech in isolation and single-sentence utterances that were taken out of the context (Levinson, 1983; Flowerdew, 1990; Mey 1993; Geis, 1995). Levinson (1983) proposes a ‘context-change theory’ of speech acts. He feels that speech act theorists have failed to appreciate the absolutely critical contribution of the context of the situation in which the interaction takes place. Flowerdew (1990) lists the most important flaws and drawbacks of the speech act theory in the following domains:
- Exact number of speech acts
- Discrete categories versus scale of meaning
- Indirect speech acts and concept of literal force
- Contrast between specific and diffuse acts
- Size of speech act realization forms
- Relation between locution, illocution and interaction
- Relation between the whole and the parts in discourse.
From the above criticism it can be pointed out that the unit of analysis of a speech act should be at discourse level and it should not be limited to the sentence level. And it should take the ‘local’ context, namely, conversational sequences into account. According to Levinson (1983):
“When a sentence is uttered, more has taken place than merely the expression of its meaning; in addition, the set of background assumptions has been altered.”
As speech acts research has been conducted on English, speech act theory’s cross cultural value has also been criticized. So, it can be asserted that the socio-cultural values and beliefs, of the speech community (where the utterance takes place) and speech event, should also be considered in the analysis of speech acts.
1.5 Felicity conditions
For every illocutionary act there is a relatively small set of necessary conditions on the intentions, beliefs, desires and external circumstances of the speaker and addressee who are performing the illocutionary act, that is a set of conditions on the speaker’s and addressee’s set and setting. These conditions are called felicity conditions.
If the illocutionary force of a sentence takes effect, the utterance is said to be happy or felicitous. The factors, which determine whether a particular illocutionary act succeeds or not are termed felicity conditions. If it goes away for some reason, it is called unhappy or infelicitous. Searle (1975) listed the following felicity conditions (rules) on directive illocutionary acts:
- Preparatory condition: hearer is able to perform action
- Sincerity condition: speaker wants the hearer to do action
- Propositional content condition: speaker predicates a future act of hearer
- Essential condition: counts as an attempt by speaker to get hearer to do action.
It is commonly believed that felicity conditions are universal. Felicity conditions do not only have the function of allowing us to distinguish between the different possible illocutionary forces of an utterance. Their main function is to characterize felicitous illocutionary acts and thereby indicate the various ways that illocutionary acts can go wrong. Felicity conditions can be used to understand how networks of acts interrelate.
2. A contrastive study of speech acts in Urdu and English
Acknowledging that, numerous second language acquisition (SLA) studies have also focused on the acquisition of speech acts, pragmatic awareness and pragmatic judgment. These studies have covered various speech acts such as invitations, requests, greetings, refusals, apologies and compliments. The present study highlights the significant contrasts in the speech acts in the Urdu (an Indo-Aryan language spoken world widely due to South Asian Diaspora) and English (Indo-European language) with regard to sex, level of formality, structure and frequency etc. The study focuses on the intentions of the speakers and their utterances (illocutionary, locutionary and perlocutionary aspects of Speech Acts).
Speech acts do not occur in vacuum from other speech acts. For example, several speech acts can occur consecutively forming what is known as a Speech Event. A speech event is an important unit of analysis because it provides a context in which to examine the actual “relationship between the speaker and the utterance, on the particular occasion of use” (Brown and Yule, 1983).
3. Method
Instrument
A questionnaire was designed comprising ten different speech events and situations. The selection of the number of speech events was made taking into account the limited scope of this study and the range and diversity of speech events was chosen on the frequency of their occurrence in daily interactions. The speech acts in English language were selected from the following books:
- Advanced Speaking Skills (1978) by Harmer, J. and Arnold, J.
- Communicate-1 (1979) by Morrow, K. and Johnson, K.
- Communicate-2 (1980) by Morrow, K. and Johnson, K.
4- English Conversation Practice (1975) by G. Taylor
5- English for Commercial Practice (1983) J. A. Rimmer and J. Scott
6- English for Hotel Staff (1979) K. Schrago-Lorden
- First Certificate Skills (1982) by Menne S.
- Functions of English (1981) by Jones, L.
- More Dialogues for Everyday Use (1984) by Curry, D.
- Situational Dialogue (1972) by Ockenden, M.
- Variations on a Theme (1978) by Maley, A and Duff, A.
Criteria for the evaluation of contrasts in speech acts
The following criteria were followed for the contrastive analysis of speech acts in both of the languages i.e. Urdu and English:
- Range (number of speech acts occurring in both languages)
- Frequency (how often speech acts occur)
- Structure (word, phrase, sentence or idiomatic expression)
- Acceptability (standard or non-standard form of language)
- Level of Formality (formal use of language or informal use of language)
- Politeness (polite expression or abrupt)
Participants:
Fifty participants have been taken from different colleges of Punjab in the study. Participants, (20 male and 30 female) aged between 18-23 years, were randomly selected from different colleges and they were told what the whole research project was about. The participants, who were graduate students, were also informed about the objectives of the study and that their participation was voluntary. Their utterances have been analyzed manually and the most common expressions used in Urdu were relied on, for categorization of the speech acts in accordance with criteria given above.
4. Results and discussion
The following are the results that have been discussed with special reference to Urdu English speech acts.
Greeting:
Greeting is a universal speech event found in all the cultures of the world. It is used by a very large number of people on the basis of daily interaction.
Speech acts in English speech acts in Urdu
1- Good Morning 1- Assalam-o-Alaikum
2- Morning 2- Subh-o-bakher
3- Good Afternoon 3- Adaab
4- Good Evening 4- Khush Amdeed
5- Salam Alaikum/Sama Laikum
6- Salam
The range of speech acts in Urdu is more extensive than English. There are four expressions in English whereas in Urdu there are six expressions. All English expressions are used quite frequently. But in Urdu speech acts No. 1 and 5 are used quite often. The remaining four speech acts are used rarely. These are not commonly used in daily interaction. The Urdu speech act no. 3 is associated with typical Urdu-speaking people. This expression is also used in writing.
Structurally, there is only one expression in English that is in the form of a simple word and this is also informal in approach. In Urdu, there are two expressions (3, 6) that are in discrete words. Three English speech acts are phrases and four Urdu speech acts are phrases. All English speech acts are standardized and polite. All English speech acts are formal except the second one, which is informal. In contrast, the first five expressions in Urdu are standardized and the last one is the non-standard expression. Except the last two speech acts which are informal and abrupt all the first four expressions are quite formal and polite as well.
Greeting on special occasions:
There are special occasions in all the cultures of the world. English and Urdu culture enjoy their different occasions of greater importance.
Speech Acts in English Speech Acts in Urdu
1- Happy Christmas 1-Aap ko/tumhein nya saal mubarak ho
2- Happy Easter 2- Eid Mubarak
3- Happy New Year 3- Shaadi Mubarak
4- Have a good weekend 4- Saalgirah Mubarak
5- Happy Birthday 5- Chaand Raat Mubarak
6- Mah-e-Rtamzan Mubarak
7- Eid-e-Milaad-u-Nabi Mubarak
The range of special events in Urdu culture is wider than in English culture. There are different religious customs in both of the language cultures. Birthday and marriage greetings are common in both cultures.
The English speech acts are common in the conversation of native speakers. But all Urdu speech acts are not common. The last three expressions in Urdu are slightly more common with women. The remaining expressions are common in Urdu conversations. Structurally, all English expressions can be used as phrases and sentences. The same is the case with Urdu speech acts. Almost all English speech acts can be used formally as well as informally. Similarly the Urdu expressions are also used formally as well as informally. But the speech act related to the event of Chand Raat is informal. This speech act is generally common among young girls and women. Men use this expression but rarely. Similarly, the speech act of Eid-e-Mild-un-Nabi is formal in approach. All expressions can be used directly or indirectly. Politeness is present there in both language expressions.
Drawing attention:
It is an interesting speech event. Sometimes it creates very interesting and amusing situations, which are not only funny but also, require mannerism.
Speech Acts in English Speech Acts in Urdu
1- Excuse me 1- Suniey
2- Excuse me please 2- Baat Sunein
3- Hello 3- Muaaf Kijyie ga
4- Attention please 4- Suniey ga
5- May I have your attention please 5- Suno/Baat Suno/Arey sun’na
6- Aik minnet baat sun’na
7- Zara sun’na
8-Mohtarma/Bibi/Behn-ji/Amma’n-
ji/Khala ji/Khatoon
9-Mohtaram/Janab/Bazurgwar/Baba-
ji/Chacha ji/Bhai sahib/Aji hazrat/
Qibla/Beta/Abba ji/Molvi sahib/Sufi ji
The range of Urdu speech acts is wider than English. It is so because a distinction is made while talking to male and female and young and old. The English language does not make this difference while interacting with men and women, and with young and old. The last two expressions in Urdu clearly show this difference. There is only one expression (3) in English that is available in the form of a word. In Urdu language there are three expressions (1, 8, and 9) that are in the form of words. The remaining four expressions in English are in sentences. In Urdu, there is only one expression (6) that is a sentence. Urdu has five expressions (2, 3, 4, 5, and 7) in phrases, while English has no phrase.
All English speech acts are used quite often in daily conversation. The Urdu speech acts are also commonly used in communication. Urdu has many expressions, which are less standardized while almost all English expressions are standardized. There are two formal expressions (2, 5) in the English. The Urdu language has four formal expressions (3, 4, 8, and 9). English has two informal expressions (1, 4) while Urdu has five informal expressions (1, 2, 5, 6, 7). In Urdu there is no specific word for drawing attention on telephone in Urdu so the English word ‘hello’ is frequently used in Urdu also.
Gratitude:
English Speech Acts Urdu Speech Acts
1- thanks/Many thanks 1- Shukriya
2- Thanks a lot/very much 2- Boht both Shukriya janab
3- Thank you very much/so much 3- Aap ki both meharbani/inayat hay
4- I don’t know how to thank you 4- Boht nawazish
5- You have been most kind/helpful 5- Aap ki zara nawazi hay varna banda kis qabil hay
6- I am really/most/very grateful to you 6- Mein aap ka/ki bey had mamnoon
/mashkoor hoon
7- How can I thank you? 7- Aap nay to humein bey daam khareed liya
8- You have been so kind 8- Mein aap ka ye ehsaan zindagi bhar nahi bhula sakta/sakti
9- Aap ki meharbanion kay jawab mein kehnay kay liye merey pass alfaaz nahi
10- Aap ka karam hay Allah aap ko is ka ajer day
The range of Urdu is rather extensive as compared to the English language. In Urdu there are some expressions that are more common in writing rather than in speaking. Speech acts (5, 7, and 9) are very formal expressions. These expressions are not only common in communication but also in writing, especially the letter writing. All the speech acts in both languages can be used formally as well as informally. The first three English speech acts are used quite often in communication. In Urdu there are seven expressions that are used frequently and the remaining four expressions are rare.
In English there is only one expression in the form of word ‘thanks’. Similarly Urdu has only one expression in the form of word ‘Shukriya’ both languages have only one phrase which is ‘many thanks’ in English and ‘bohat Shukriya’ in Urdu. The seven expressions of English are in the form of sentences and Urdu has eight speech acts in the form of sentences. All expressions in English as well in Urdu are standardized and very common in use. Grammatically, the expressions of both the languages are polite and direct.
Pleasure:
Pleasure is a feeling that contributes a lot in one’s life.
Speech Acts in English Speech Acts in Urdu
It is lovely/beautiful 1- Zabardast
2- Very nice/wonderful/marvelous 2- Wah/Aha! Kitna khoobsurat hay
3- great/excellent 3- Wah bhai Wah
4- I have very much enjoyed 4- Kia baat hay!
5- I liked…….a lot 5- Boht khoob/kia khoob hay
6- We were so pleased/happy 6- Kitna pyara hay
7- It was such an interesting/pleasant 7- Maza aa gia bhai
8- It was so enjoyable 8- Subhan-Allah!
9- What an interesting!
10- How lovely/nice
11- That was lovely/great
The range of speech acts in English is wider than those of Urdu. There are eleven expressions in English and just eight expressions in Urdu. In English all the speech acts are used frequently in communication. Except the last expression in Urdu, which has been taken from Arabic origin, the other expressions are also frequently used in conversation.
Both languages have just one expression that is in the form of a word (1 in Urdu and 3 in English). There are no expressions in English that are in phrases while in Urdu there are three expressions (3, 5, and 8) in phrases. There are four expressions in Urdu, which are in the form of sentences while in English there are ten expressions, which are in the form of sentences. The expressions are generally in the form of adjectives and interjections in both languages. All expressions in both Urdu and English are standardized and people use these expressions commonly in their daily conversations.
All English speech acts can be used formally as well as informally. In Urdu there is clear distinction between formal and informal expressions. There is only one speech act (8) in Urdu that is formal in approach. The other remaining speech acts are informal. Both language expressions are mostly polite.
Surprise:
Speech Acts in English Speech Acts in Urdu
1- Oh! Oh no! 1- Wakaei
2- Really! 2- Mujhey yaqin nahi aa raha
3- What! (all question words) 3- Na mumkin
4- Impossible! 4- Ye nahi ho sakta
5- Incredible 5- Mein nahi manta/maanti
6- I can’t believe it 6- Ye kesay ho sakta hay/mumkin hay
7- You must be joking 7- Nahi/nahi bhai/nahi yar
8- Good God/Heavens! 8- Achha!
9- Well, this is a surprise! 9- Heirat hay/ajeeb baat hay
10- Did you really! 10- Such/suchy
11- Have they really! 11- Qasam khao
12- Surely not! 12- Kahin aap/tum mazaq to nahi ker rahey
13- Honestly! 13- Kia ker rahey hein aap
14-Oh Khudaya/Uff Khudaya/Uff Allah/
Haey Allah ye sab kesay hua
There are thirteen speech acts in English whereas Urdu has fourteen speech acts. The expressions in Urdu seem to be the literal translation of English expressions. Almost all English speech acts are used formally as well as informally. However, much depends upon the circumstances in which people are communicating with each other. In Urdu speech acts no. 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 12 are formal as well as informal. Some expressions (4, 5, 7, 10, 11, and 14) are completely informal. Women typically use the last expression in Urdu speech acts.
There is use of words, phrases and sentences in both languages. English has five expressions (2, 3, 4, 5, and 13), which are in the form of words. Three expressions (1, 8, and 12) are in phrasal forms. The remaining expressions are small sentences. In Urdu five expressions (1, 3, 7, 8, and 10) are in the form of words. Some expressions (9, 11) are phrases. The rest of the seven expressions are sentences.
English speech acts are quite common in use. But in Urdu there are some speech acts (9, 11 and 13) which are somewhat rare in common conversation. The rest of the expressions are frequently used in communication. All English expressions are standardized and polite. In Urdu there are four expressions which are non-standardized, the remaining expressions are standardized. All expressions in Urdu are polite except one expression (11), which is rarely used.
Apologizing:
Speech Acts in English Speech Acts in Urdu
1- I am very/terribly/awfully sorry 1- Mein muaffy chahta hoon/chahti hoon
2- I’d like to apologize for…… 2- Mein apnay kiey per sharminda
/pasheiman hoon
3- Please forgive me/excuse me for….. 3- Muaaf ker do na bhai Ghalti ho gai
4- I really must apologize for….. 4- Mein apni kotahi per maazrat khwa hoon
5- Sorry about/for that 5- Mujhey both afsos/nidamat/ranj hay
6- Brah-e-meharbani meri khata ko darguzar ker dein
7- Mein api herkat per muafi ka/ki talabgar
/khawastgar hoon
8- Janab ghalti ho gai muaaf ker dein
9- Bhai gustakhi muaaf ayenda aesa nahi ho ga
10- Khuda kay wastay mujhey bakhsh dein
11- Khata muaaf/meri tauba
The range of Urdu expressions is much wider than those of English expressions. English has only five expressions but in Urdu there are eleven expressions. All speech acts in English are commonly used in communication. In Urdu some expressions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8) are very common and the rest of five expressions are rare in Urdu. Speech act no. 4, 6 and 7 are more common in writing than in speaking.
Almost all English expressions are formal which can be used informally as well. But all Urdu expressions are not formal. Three expressions (3, 9 and 11) are informal. Just one expression (5) can be used formally as well as informally. All the remaining expressions are formal.
Structurally all English expressions are sentences. In Urdu the last expression is a phrase but all of the remaining expressions are sentences. All English expressions are standardized and polite. But in Urdu eight expressions are standardized and three non-standardized. Speech acts 4, 6 and 7 in Urdu are more polite than the other expressions.
Forgiving:
Speech Acts in English Speech Acts in Urdu
1- OK 1- Achha bhai ab chhoro usay bhool jao
2- All right 2- Nahi nahi aesi koi baat nahi
3- Don’t worry 3- Nahi koi baat nahi sab theek hay
4- Never mind 4- Dafa karo matti dalo jo hona tha ho gia
5- Forget it 5- Chalein jane dein ab
6- It wasn’t your fault 6- Chalein muaaf kiya, kia yaad karein gay kis sakhi say pala para hay
7- It was no body’s fault 7- Chhorein sahib garhey murday okhaarnay ka kia fayda
8- Chalein chhorein laikin aeynda ehtyat kijeiy ga
9- Arey ab rehnay bhi dein,samjhein raat gai baat gai
The range of speech acts in Urdu is wider than in English. There are only seven expressions in English but in Urdu there are nine expressions. All speech acts in English are used quite often. ‘OK’, ‘Alright’, ‘Never mind’ are very commonly used expressions among the native speakers of English. In Urdu the expressions (4, 7 and 9) are not very common and rare in use. All the remaining expressions are commonly used.
Structurally there seems to be a great contrast in both languages. ‘O.K.’ is the only expression in English which is in the form of abbreviation. Speech acts no. 2, 4 and 5 are phrases. The rest of the expressions are sentences. But in Urdu all of the expressions are in sentences. All expressions in English are standardized. Urdu has also standardized form but expression no. 6 is an idiomatic sentence very common in interaction of Urdu speaking people.
Almost all expressions in English are formal and these can be used informally also. In Urdu, expressions (2 & 3) can be used formally as well as informally. Just three expressions (7, 8 and 9) are formal and all the other expressions in Urdu are informal. English speech acts are polite but this tendency in Urdu is lesser one than that of English.
Disappointment:
Speech Acts in English Speech Acts in Urdu
1- Oh hell/damn 1- Meri to samajh mein nahi aa raha kay ab kia ho ga
2- Oh dear/no! 2- Meri to aqal jawab day gai hay, maloom nhai ye muamla kesay hal ho ga
3- How disappointing! 3- Afsos kia socha tha or kia ho gia
4- I had so hoped…. 4- Ab to kuch nhai ho sakta Allah he hafiz hay
5- It doesn’t matter I suppose 5- Kia faiyda hua itni mehnat kernay ka
6- It can’t be helped 6- Oh yeh kia ho gia
7- What a pity/shame/nuiance 7- Laa’nat hay is kaam per bhai
8- Not again! 8- Chhoro koi faiyda nahi sochnay ka
9- Dafa karo jo hona hay wo to ho ga kia, hum ker bhi kia saktay hein
The range of speech acts in Urdu is wider than in English. There are eight expressions in English and nine expressions in Urdu. All the expressions both in English and Urdu are commonly used in conversations. Structurally, Urdu speech acts are complete sentences whereas in English expressions (1, 2, 3 and 8) are phrases and the remaining expressions are sentences.
Almost all the expressions in English are standardized whereas in Urdu expressions (6 & 9) are less standardized and the remaining expressions are standardized. All English expressions are formal in use. The first three speech acts in Urdu can be used formally as well as informally and the remaining six are informal. All English speech acts are direct expressions. Urdu speech acts are also direct in nature.
Fear or worry:
Speech Acts in English Speech Acts in Urdu
1- I am afraid/scared/frightened/worried 1- Mujhey to us waqt ka soch ker he dar
lag raha hay
2- It worries/scares/frightens me 2- Agar ye masla hal na hua to kia ho ga
3- I don’t like this at all 3- Allah kher karey pata nahi kia ho ga
4- It makes me feel uneasy 4- Agar aisa na hua to Qayamat barpa ho
jaey gi
5- I am not at all happy about…..
6- There is something not quite right about…..
7- I have got a nasty/strange/uneasy feeling that….
The range of English expressions is comparatively more extensive than that of Urdu. Urdu speech acts can be increased according to the requirements. All the expressions of both languages are frequently used in common conversations. Structurally, all the expressions in English and Urdu are in sentences.
All English and Urdu expressions can be used formally as well informally. All English and Urdu expressions are in standardized forms in this typical speech event. The element of politeness is greater in English than in Urdu. The expression no. 4 in Urdu is rather a warning and very less polite in nature. All English expressions can be used in direct narration. All Urdu speech acts are used directly as well as indirectly in communication.
5. Findings
Following are main findings which show with the help of the tables how the speech acts in the two languages differ from each other.
5.1- Speech Act Classes
Speech Events |
Speech Act Class |
Greeting |
Expressive |
Greetings on Special Occasions |
Expressive |
Drawing Attention |
Directive |
Gratitude |
Expressive |
Pleasure |
Expressive |
Surprise |
Expressive |
Apologizing |
Expressive |
Forgiving |
Declarative |
Disappointment |
Assertives |
Fear OR Worry |
Expressive |
Table 5.1 shows different Speech Act Classes
5.2- Speech Act Classes in percentage
Speech Act Class |
Percentage |
Assertives |
10 % |
Directives |
10 % |
Commissives |
0 % |
Expressives |
70 % |
Declaratives |
10 % |
Table 5.2 shows Speech Act Classes in percentage
Speech Events |
Range |
|
English |
Urdu |
Greeting |
04 |
06 |
Greetings on Special Occasions |
05 |
07 |
Drawing Attention |
05 |
09 |
Gratitude |
08 |
10 |
Pleasure |
11 |
08 |
Surprise |
13 |
14 |
Apologizing |
05 |
11 |
Forgiving |
07 |
09 |
Disappointment |
08 |
09 |
Fear OR Worry |
07 |
04 |
Table 5.3: shows the range of expressions in English and Urdu
5.4 Frequency:
Speech Events |
Frequencies |
|
Often
English Urdu |
Rare
English Urdu |
Greeting |
All |
02 |
- |
04 |
Greetings on Special Occasions |
All |
04 |
- |
03 |
Drawing Attention |
All |
08 |
- |
01 |
Gratitude |
All |
07 |
- |
03 |
Pleasure |
All |
07 |
- |
01 |
Surprise |
All |
11 |
- |
03 |
Apologizing |
All |
06 |
- |
05 |
Forgiving |
All |
06 |
- |
03 |
Disappointment |
All |
09 |
- |
- |
Fear OR Worry |
All |
03 |
- |
01 |
Table 5.4: shows the frequencies of expressions in English and Urdu
English speech acts are more frequently used than the Urdu expressions. The above table clearly shows that in English there is not even a single entity that is used rarely but in Urdu there so many expressions that are used rarely. The role of gender does not play any significant role in the speech acts of the two languages i.e. there is no clear distinction of males and females. Barring a few specific expressions almost all the expressions can be used equally by both of the sexes.
5.5- Structure:
Speech Events |
Structure |
|
Words
English. Urdu |
Phrases
English. Urdu |
Sentences
English. Urdu |
Idioms
English. Urdu |
Greeting |
01 |
02 |
03 |
04 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Greetings on Special Occasions |
|
|
05 |
04 |
05 |
07 |
- |
- |
Drawing Attention |
01 |
03 |
02 |
04 |
02 |
01 |
- |
- |
Gratitude |
01 |
01 |
01 |
01 |
07 |
08 |
- |
- |
Pleasure |
01 |
01 |
- |
03 |
10 |
04 |
- |
- |
Surprise |
05 |
05 |
03 |
03 |
05 |
07 |
- |
- |
Apologizing |
- |
- |
- |
01 |
05 |
10 |
- |
- |
Forgiving |
01 |
- |
03 |
- |
03 |
09 |
- |
03 |
Disappointment |
- |
- |
04 |
- |
04 |
09 |
- |
- |
Fear OR Worry |
- |
- |
- |
- |
07 |
04 |
- |
- |
Table 5.5: shows the structure of expressions in English and Urdu
Structural variety exists in both languages. Verbalization can be done through single lexical item, phrase, idiom or a sentence but the propensity to use the sentences is higher in Urdu than in English. Another important finding is that though Urdu language has use of idiomatic expressions to some extent, there is no use of idiomatic expressions in common conversations in English.
5.6- Acceptability:
Speech Events |
Acceptability |
|
Standard
English Urdu |
Non-standard
English Urdu |
Greeting |
All |
05 |
- |
01 |
Greetings on Special Occasions |
All |
07 |
- |
- |
Drawing Attention |
All |
07 |
- |
02 |
Gratitude |
All |
09 |
- |
01 |
Pleasure |
All |
08 |
- |
- |
Surprise |
All |
10 |
- |
04 |
Apologizing |
All |
08 |
- |
03 |
Forgiving |
All |
08 |
- |
01 |
Disappointment |
All |
09 |
- |
- |
Fear OR Worry |
All |
04 |
- |
- |
Table 5.6: shows the acceptability of expressions in English and Urdu
If we see on the level of acceptability, it is revealed that English expressions are more acceptable in their given context. But the case with Urdu is quite different. Speech acts are restricted in Urdu in their acceptability being used by laymen or uneducated people causing variation in language use.
5.7- Formality:
Speech Events |
Formality |
|
Formal/Informal
English Urdu |
Formal
English Urdu |
Informal
English Urdu |
Greeting |
All |
- |
- |
04 |
01 |
02 |
Greetings on Special Occasions |
All |
05 |
- |
01 |
- |
01 |
Drawing Attention |
All |
- |
- |
04 |
02 |
05 |
Gratitude |
All |
- |
- |
10 |
- |
- |
Pleasure |
All |
- |
- |
01 |
- |
07 |
Surprise |
All |
06 |
- |
01 |
- |
08 |
Apologizing |
All |
- |
- |
08 |
- |
03 |
Forgiving |
All |
02 |
- |
03 |
- |
04 |
Disappointment |
All |
03 |
- |
01 |
- |
06 |
Fear OR Worry |
All |
01 |
- |
- |
- |
03 |
The level of formality has been found to be very much higher in English as compared to that of Urdu. A clear distinction has been made in the use of formality in both of the languages. Generally all the Urdu expressions can be used interchangeably with no clear specification of formality or informality. This does not mean that Urdu language is not formal in its expression but the speakers’ use is somewhat abrupt that lacks standardization and formality.
5.8- Politeness:
Speech Events |
Politeness |
|
Polite/Indirect
English Urdu |
Abrupt/Direct
English Urdu |
Greeting |
All |
04 |
- |
02 |
Greetings on Special Occasions |
All |
All |
- |
- |
Drawing Attention |
All |
03 |
- |
06 |
Gratitude |
All |
All |
- |
- |
Pleasure |
All |
All |
- |
- |
Surprise |
All |
10 |
- |
01 |
Apologizing |
All |
03 |
- |
07 |
Forgiving |
All |
03 |
- |
06 |
Disappointment |
All |
- |
- |
All |
Fear OR Worry |
All |
- |
- |
All |
Table 5.8: shows the politeness of expressions in English and Urdu
The most important finding is the difference level of politeness in both of the languages. English language seems much more polite in his regard. Urdu is less polite because most of the speech acts seem to be direct, abrupt and blunt. An attempt is made to soften it by using a mild tone and sometimes some borrowed words ‘Please’ and ‘Excuse me’ etc. are added to Urdu speech acts to bring the elements of politeness.
6. Conclusion
The present study is an attempt to analyze the Urdu language from sociolinguistic and socio-pragmatic perspectives. Although the study is limited in its scope it has highlighted significant contrasts in the speech acts of English and Urdu with regard to level of formality, structure and frequency etc. It has been generally observed that the students in most of the situations tend to translate speech acts from their first language (Urdu) to the target language (English). Such expressions may create pragmatic failure in communication with native speakers of English. An understanding of speech acts as they are realized in the English language will contribute a lot in achieving communicative competence in the target language.
Communicative competence, certainly, does not mean just the linguistic competence of the local or target language but the socio-cultural implications are also there. The findings show that there are some utterances in both languages that are meant only for religious or cultural purposes. The findings can be used for language teaching, language learning and syllabus design and particularly to improve the politeness of communication in Urdu speech acts with definite politeness being coined and introduced in the Urdu textbooks. Furthermore, from the sociolinguistic point of view the findings show that there is a need to teach students about particular language norms and beliefs for use in particular contexts.
It goes without saying that it would be beneficial to do such a study with a greater number of participants. Further studies with greater numbers would go far in substantiating the data provided here. In addition, several other factors need to be examined such as native language and differing speech events.
References
Austin, J.L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Austin, J. L (1975). How to do things with words. New revised edition, M. Sbisa & J.O. Urmson (Eds.), Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Brown, G. & Yule, G. (1983). Discourse analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cook, G. (1989). Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Curry, D. (1984). More dialogues for everyday use. English Teaching Division, U.S Information Agency, Washington, D.C.
Ellis, R. (1992) Learning to communicate: A study of two language learner’s requests. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14(1), 1-23.
Geis, M. L. (1995). Speech acts and conversational interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Flowerdew, J. (1990). Problems of speech act theory from an applied perspective.Language Learning, 40(1), 79-105.
Harmer, J. and Arnold, J. (1978). Advanced speaking skills. London: Longman.
Heringer, J. (1972). Some grammatical correlates of felicity conditions and presuppositions. Working Papers in Linguistics (The Ohio State University) 11, 1-110.
Jones, L. (1981). Functions of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Levinson, S. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Maley, A and Duff, A. (1978). Variations on a theme. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Menne S. (1982). First certificate skills. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mey, J. (1993). Pragmatics. An introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
Morrow, K. & K. Johnson (1979). Communicate 1 and 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Morrow, K. and Johnson, K. (1980) Communicate 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ockenden, M. (1972). Situational dialogues. London: Longman.
Rimmer, J. A. & Scott J. (1983). English for commercial practice. London: Bell and Hyman.
Sbisa, M. (2002). Speech acts in context. Language and Communication, 22(4), 421-436.
Schrago-Lorden, K. (1979). English for hotel staff. London: Evans.
Searle, J.R (1969). Speech acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Searle, J.R (1975). A taxonomy of illocutionary acts. In K. Gunderson (Ed.), Language, mind and knowledge (pp. 344-369). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
Taylor, G. (1975). English conversation practice. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.
Yule, J. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
