A Brief Analysis of Illocutionary Acts

A Brief Analysis of llocutionary Acts王曄(山西師范大學(xué)外國語(yǔ)學(xué)院，山西臨汾041000)Abstract: llocutionary acts, introduced by John L. Austin in investigation of the multiple meanings in a speech act, belong to pragmaticsin linguistis. It is using a sentence to perform a function, it is the act of exprssing the speaker's intention and the act performed by or resulingfrom saying somnething, In this paper, 1 will go more cdloser to ilocutionary acts and have a better understanding of it.Key Words: llocutionary acts; speech act; meaning1. IntroductionIllocutionary act is a term in lingustics introduced by John 一 and elements make up an ilocutionary act.LAustin in investigation of the muliple meanings in a speech act.According to the conception adopted by Bach and Harnish inAcording to Austin's original expositin in How to Do Things With. 'Linguistie Communication and Speech Acts', an ilultionay act is anWords, an ilcuionary act is an act () for the performance of which 1 atempt to communicate, which they analyze as the expression of anmust make it clear to some other person that the act is performed and atitude.(2) the performance of which involves the production of what Austincalls‘conventional consequences'.Several speech act theorists, including Austin himself, make use2. Two Branches of Meaning Semantics and Pragmaticsof the notion of an ilocutionary force. In Austin's original account, theIn lnguistics, when concerming meaning, two fields are often. notion remains rather unclear. Some fllowerss of Austin, such as Davidrelated: one is semantics and the other is pragmatics.Holderoft, view ilocutionary force as the property of an utterance to beSemantics is the branch of linguistics which stands at the very made with the intention to perform a certain ilcuionary act一rathercenter of the linguistie quest to understand the nature of language and than as the successful performance of the act.human language ability.However, Bach and Hanish assume ilcutionary force just inHowever, there are many other instances in which the literal case this or that ilcutionary act is actually (uccsfully) performed.meaning of the utterance is far away from the intended meaning of the According to this conception, the addressee must have heard andspeaker and that the hearer can almost always work out what the understood that the speaker intends to make a bet with them in orderspeaker intends to convey. Pragmatics studies how the transmission of for the utterance to have‘iloeutionary force' . If we adopt the notionmeaning depends not only on the linguistic knowledge of the speaker of ilocutionary force as an aspect of meaning, then it appears that theand listener, but also on the context of the uterance, knowledge about (intended)‘' force’ of certain sentences, or uterancese, are not quitethe status of those involved, the inferred intent of the speaker, and s0 obvious.n.4.3 Commitment Between Mlocutionary Acts3. Speech Act TheoryCommitment between ilocutionary acts is a condition in whichAlthough there are several hundred speech acts such as”the speaker's commitment to one ilocutionary act necessarily meanspromising, requesting, and reposting, there appear to be four major the commitment to some other ilocutionary act, regardless of theatitudes which can be expressed by the speaker:For example: The performance of an act ofa) Belief: Speaker expresses belief that proposition is true.demanding commits one to an act of requesting; The commitment to ab) Desire: Speaker expresses a desire concening the action promise commitsone to an act of asserting that one is not saying onespecified in the proposition.does not promise: The commitment to a conjunctive ilocutionary actcommits the speaker to each of the elementary ilocutionary actscommitment associated with the action specified in the propasition.contained within it.d) Evaluation: Speaker expresses a personal evaluation towards4.4 The Form and Function of the llocutionary Actsome past action.4.4.1 Form4. Ilocutionary ActsThe basic form of informational ilcutionary acts has threeThe concept of an ilocutinary act is central to the concept of acomponents: the nominator， the predictor, and the situationalspeech act. Although there are numerous opinions as to how to define'complement. Directive ilcutionary actsdirect commands'llocutionary acts', there are some kinds of acts which are widely expressed grammatically, i e., by the imperative, have only theacepted as ilocutionary, as for example promising, ordering someone,predicative component extended by the addressee (by a phaticand bequeathing.illocutionary act). Cogitative ilcutionary acts have two components. In4.1 Historical Study- What Is llocutionary Actsthe first one, theMany define the term "llocutionary act" with reference to substantive/pron中國煤化工;involves a verb + aexamples, saying for example that any speech act (like stating, asking, conjunction + th:YHCNMHGcommanding, promising, and so on) is an ilocutionary act. This4.4.2 Function(下轉309頁(yè)下)務(wù)業(yè)套京文學(xué)2012. 03向世界傳遞出壯語(yǔ)民歌的意蘊，在英譯時(shí)也要充分考慮到譯本出發(fā)，從與世界文化交流的角度出發(fā)，都不應固守某一種翻譯的押韻問(wèn)題。如策略，應當是將歸化和異化融合起來(lái)，兼容并蓄，以實(shí)際出發(fā)媽啊媽?zhuān)瑏?lái)選擇適當的翻譯策略。窗下梳著(zhù)白頭發(fā)，從《壯族民間故事選壯漢英對照讀本》這本書(shū)來(lái)看,該書(shū)媽媽慈和媽媽好,就沒(méi)有簡(jiǎn)單地將翻譯策略歸結為“歸化”或是“異化”。首我來(lái)住在媽媽家。先，該書(shū)的閱讀對象是中國學(xué)生，特別是壯族學(xué)生。其次,編Mother Liu oh Mother Liu,譯該書(shū)的目的是著(zhù)眼于使學(xué)生們理解、接受、記得英語(yǔ)。閱讀Combing your silver hair by the window, Mother you’re kind對象上的差異使得英譯中不能完全地采用“歸化”策略，編譯Moher you' re gentle,目的又導致了英譯中不能完全地“異化”。因此，該書(shū)的英譯1 wish to live in Mother' s home. ( P109 )策略就是一種由于閱讀對象和編譯目的而產(chǎn)生的全新翻譯策這首壯族民歌讀起來(lái)瑯瑯上口，句子的一、二、四句押略: 既要保證英譯壯族故事的完整性、準確性，又要保證學(xué)生韻，在翻譯時(shí)就要盡量地保持這種音韻上的起伏變化。譯者在在接受的過(guò)程中不會(huì )遇到很大的阻礙 、提高學(xué)生的英語(yǔ)能力。此處盡力將結尾的英文詞語(yǔ)押同一韻，使英譯本有了很強的音也許，按照傳統的“歸化”和“異化”標準來(lái)看，這種新的英樂(lè )性。第-句“媽啊媽”采用重復來(lái)體現壯族民歌的口語(yǔ)化特譯方法是一種“歸化”中的“異化”、“異化” 中的“歸點(diǎn),相應地，其譯文也被譯為“Mother Liu oh MotherLiu”,既化”忠實(shí)于原文，又將口語(yǔ)化特點(diǎn)貫徹到了英譯之中?；谏鲜龅男枰?在選擇歸化與異化翻譯策略時(shí)，譯者需值得指出的是，在翻譯民歌時(shí)，為了解決押韻問(wèn)題，該書(shū)要掌握- 一個(gè)適 當的度，既不可太靠近讀者，淡化源語(yǔ)文化;也譯者還采用了一些獨到的方法，如:不可太靠近作者,使目標語(yǔ)讀者產(chǎn)生困惑。要針對民間文學(xué)的山歌越唱心越開(kāi),文化背景、源語(yǔ)文本、作者意圖、翻譯目的、讀者接受水平來(lái)泉水越舀越有來(lái);靈活運用著(zhù)兩種翻譯策略，以實(shí)現不同文化間的交流與融合。不信你看劉三姐，四、結語(yǔ)唱歌得坐鯉魚(yú)巖。上述分析可見(jiàn)，民間文學(xué)英譯是中華文化和優(yōu)良傳統得以The more we sing mountain songs the happier are we,弘揚的-一個(gè)重要手段，我國譯者要將更多更好的中華民族民間The more spring water we take the more it pours;文學(xué)介紹給世界，也要將世界各國優(yōu)秀的民間文學(xué)引人我國，If you don' t believe me then look at Liu Sanjie,同各國譯者-同將民間文學(xué)英譯這一事業(yè)發(fā)揚光大。She sings splendidly and she sits on Carp Rock forevermore.(P128 )基金項目:廣西民族大學(xué)文學(xué)院研究生科研創(chuàng )新項目這段民歌第-句如果按照正常的英語(yǔ)句法來(lái)看，文中的“are we"應該是"we are"。但是譯者為什么要這樣用呢?這[參考文獻I里運用了一種英譯詩(shī)歌的處理方法一-詩(shī)的破格( petic出版社，201[]金麗,蒙元耀.壯族民間故事選壯漢莢對照讀本[M].南寧:廣西人民licence) 。寫(xiě)詩(shī)或者行文時(shí)，為了保證句式押韻和表達流暢，[2] 汪榕培.比較與翻譯[M].上海:上海外語(yǔ)教育出版社, 1997.而采用的違反語(yǔ)法常規的譯法。[3] 王宏印.中國文化典籍英譯[M].北京:外語(yǔ)赦學(xué)與研究出版社, 2009.三民間文學(xué)英譯策略的分析[4]卓振英,李貴蒼.壯族典籍莢譯的新紀元一-試論 《麼經(jīng)布洛陀》英談到民間文學(xué)英譯策略就不得不提到“歸化”與“異化”譯研究D.廣西民族研究, 208.(4).[5]黃中習.中國典籍英譯事業(yè):機遇與挑戰0].銀川:寧夏社會(huì )科學(xué),的問(wèn)題。簡(jiǎn)單地說(shuō)，“歸化” 是使源語(yǔ)文化接近目標語(yǔ)文化，2008.6.盡量消除二者差異的一種譯法。而“異化”則是保留原文的異6]霍躍紅.典籍英譯:意義、主體和策略0]I. 大連:外語(yǔ)與外語(yǔ)教學(xué)，域性，使二者存在差異，進(jìn)而通過(guò)這種差異達到豐富目標語(yǔ)文205.19.化的目的的一-種譯法。那么在民間文學(xué)英譯時(shí),究竟是該靠近作者還是該靠近讀劉蕊(1982- -),女遼寧錦州人，廣西民族大學(xué)文學(xué)院比較文學(xué)與世[作者簡(jiǎn)介I者呢?盡管歸化和異化策略在形式上看相互排斥的，但是在實(shí)界文學(xué)專(zhuān)業(yè)碩士研究生在讀，主要研究方向:中西比較文學(xué)。際應用中，從跨文化的角度出發(fā)，從弘揚我國傳統文化的角度The functon of the iormational ilcuinany act is to provide particular illutionarny force, whereby the speaker, aserts, suggests,information, the function of the cogitative ilocutionary act is to demands, promises, or vows.introduce new ilocutionary acts and express ones atitude toward them,llocutionary acts is very important in the meaning leaming ofthe function of the directive ilocutionay act is to require thelanguage, in linguistics and most importantly in our daily life. Itsaction/reaction of the addressce.intended meaning is though profound and complex but lively and5. Conclusioninteresting. So, as a linguistics major, only do we mariage the concept,In summary, An ilocutionary act is a complete speech act, madeprinciples and中國煤化工have a bter andin a typical utterance, that consists of the delivery of the propositional deeper compreh:MYHC N M H Gurther a btter graspcontent of the utterance (including references and a predicate), and aof pragmatics and linguistics.(上接310頁(yè))2012. 03東京文學(xué)| 309