Speech-Act Verbs Reconsidered(In Commemoration of Prof. Matsukawa's Retirement)

概要

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This paper is aimed at clarifying the boundaries among English verbs called speech-act, illocutionary, perlocutionary, and performative verbs. As a step to attain this goal, the entire scope of English verbs were classified by using distinctive features considered relevant from the viewpoint of speech acts. This enterprize was undertaken based on the distinctions of language functions originally proposed by K.R. Popper and the classification of English speech-act verbs by G.N. Leech who I recognize most systematically developed the ideas launched by Austin and Searle. In passing I compared English speech-act verbs with Japanese counterparts. A major finding in this process was that the English language seemed to have much more verbs incorporating the element of 'speech' in their meanings than the Japanese language. In the concluding section I reviewed a promissing approach to cross-cultural studies of speech acts, and pointed out its limitation and prospect.