Understanding Speech Acts: Austin and Searle

Posted by on Feb 23, 2025 in History and Music Sciences | 0 comments

Speech Acts

The theory of Speech Acts was originated by John Austin (1911-1960) and continued by John Searle (1932-), who was a student of Austin.

When you do something, you are performing an action, and when you ask for something, you are also performing an action: the act of asking. This perspective provides insight into the utility of human communication: that humans use communication as a tool to achieve their goals.

Speech act theory views utterances as acts. An utterance has a linguistic structure

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Mastering Communication: Conversation, Discussion, and Speech Acts

Posted by on Feb 10, 2025 in History and Music Sciences | 0 comments

Conversation

We can engage in conversation in four different ways:

Everyday Level

  1. Ordinary Conversation: This allows us to communicate about everyday experiences.
  2. Scientific Conversation: This involves a deeper level of discussion, using methods and assumptions to explore a topic. It seeks interpretations and explanations. Example: What do you think about…?
  3. Philosophical Level: This questions the scientific level and reflects on the discussed theme.
  4. Religious or Theological Conversation: This delves
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