The art of non-verbal communication in perlocutionary giftedness

Adam Świątek

State University of Applied Sciences in Konin , Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6861-8403


Abstract

Language aptitude and perlocutionary acts and effects have been subjects of extensive research since their true beginnings in the 1950’s and 1960’s, respectively. On the one hand, Carroll and Sapon (1959), Pimsleur (1966), or Biedroń (2012) aimed at revealing the factors responsible for a learner’s sixth sense for languages. On the other hand, almost simultaneously, Austin (1962) introduced the tripartite division of a speech act, with locutions, illocutions, and perlocutions as the integral components, later developed by Searle (1969), who shed new light on the Speech Act Theory (SAT). At that time, however, the role of the perlocutionary component was significantly diminished, since the primary goal of pragmatics was to investigate the speaker’s intentions. Gradually, the role of perlocutionary acts and effects changed and more attention was drawn to the perlocutionary aspect. In 1979, Cohen, Davis and Gaines highlighted the fact that perlocutionary acts have perlocutionary goals, which might be observed by the subsequent effects utterance have on the listener. In 2013, Post offered a new insight into the SAT and suggested that the role of perlocution ought not to be diminished, but enhanced and intensified. In 2015, Świątek suggested a contrasting approach to both concepts and combined them to investigate the role of individual differences responsible for one’s verbal perlocutionary giftedness. The research revealed that the aspects like verbal aptitude, anxiety, willingness to communicate, or personality type had considerable impact on perlocutionary skills and the desired perlocutionary effects. Świątek’s approach shed new light on the research on pragmatic aspects of glottodidactics and opened a new chapter in that field of science. The aim of the presentation is to concentrate on yet another fundamental factor of perlocutionary giftedness, i.e. non-verbal aspects in its manifestation. The research, based on experiential and comparative methods as well as individual case analysis, aimed at revealing a strong link between verbal perlocutionary giftedness and the accompanying non-verbal aspects of communication, such as kinesics, proxemics, vocalics, or posture, which affect the listener’s decisions, who then complies with the speaker’s will.

Keywords:

aptitude, communication, individual differences, perlocution

Austin, J. L. 1962. How to do things with words. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Biedroń, A. 2011. Personality factors as predictors of foreign language aptitude. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching 1(4): 467–489. Słupsk: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Akademii Pomorskiej w Słupsku.

Brown, D. H. 2000. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Pearson Education.

Campbell, P. N. 1973. A rhetorical view of locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts. Quarterly Journal of Speech 59: 284–296.

Cap, P. 2010. Text, discourse, function: further ways into pragmatics. In B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (ed.), New Ways to Language, 187–218. Łódź: Łódź University Press.

Carroll, J. B. 1962. The prediction of success in intensive foreign language training. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Cohen, T. 1979. Illocutions and perlocutions. Foundations of Language 9: 492–503.

Davis, S. 1979. Perlocutions. Linguistics and Philosophy 3: 225–243.

DeKeyser, R. M. 2007. Practice in a Second Language. Perspectives from Applied Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dornyei, Z., and P. Skehan. 2003. Individual Differences in Second Language Learning. In C. J. Doughty, and M. H. Long (eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition, 589–630. Oxford: Blackwell.

Ellis, R. 1997. Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gaines, R. 1979. Doing by saying: Toward a theory of perlocution. The Quarterly Journal of Speech 65: 207–217.

Hajduk, Z. 2001. Ogólna metodologia nauk. Lublin: Wydawnictwo Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego.

Huang, Y. 2014. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kalisz, R. 1993. Pragmatyka językowa. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego.

Krzeszowski, T. P. 1997. Angels and Devils in Hell. Elements of Axiology in Linguistics. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Energeia.

Leech, G. N. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.

Levinson, S. C. 1980. Speech act theory: The state of the art. Language Teaching and linguistics: Abstracts, 5–24.

Marcu, D. 2000. Perlocutions: the Achilles’ heel of speech act theory. Journal of Pragmatics 32: 1719–1741.

Osika, G. 2001. Teorie aktów mowy. Zeszyty Naukowe Politechniki Śląskiej: Seria Organizacja i Zarządzanie 6(1520): 1–22.

Osika, G. 2008. The communicative acts as action. Lingua ac Communitas. Journal of philosophy, language and communication 18: 35–44.

Pieter, J. 1967. Ogólna metodologia pracy naukowej. Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk.

Plisiecka-Witczak, I. 2013. From Speech Acts to Speech Actions. Łódź: Łódź University Press.

Post, M. 1999a. Analysing the unanalyzable: perlocutionary acts and perlocutionary effects. In A. Ciuk (ed.), Prof. Dr Gerhard Nickel’s 70th Birthday. A Festschrift, 27–38. Opole: Instytut Filologii Angielskiej, Uniwersytet Opolski.

Post, M. 1999b. Perlocutionary expressions. Their nature and acquisition. In M. Wysocka (ed.), On Language Theory and Practice vol. II. Tom jubileuszowy dedykowany Profesorowi Januszowi Arabskiemu, 101–109. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego.

Post, M. 1999c. Towards a Framework for the Study of Perlocutionary Acts. Linguistica Silesiana 20: 19–30.

Post, M. 2001. Efekty i akty perlokucyjne. In W. Kubiński, and D. Stanulewicz (eds.), Językoznawstwo kognitywne II, 135–147. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego.

Post, M. 2011. Od aksjologii lingwistycznej do lingwistyki aksjologicznej [From linguistic axiology to axiological linguistics]. In Z. Wąsik, and M. Post (eds.). 2012. Papers and Studies in Axiological Linguistics 7: 35–46. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Filologicznej we Wrocławiu.

Post, M. 2013. Speech Acts and Speech Genres. An Axiological Linguistics Perspective. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Filologicznej we Wrocławiu.

Ross J. R. 1970. On declarative sentences. In R. A. Jacobs, and P. S. Rosenbaum (eds.), 1970: Readings in English Transformational Grammar, 222–272. Waltham MA: Ginn and Company.

Sadock, J. M. 1974. Toward a Linguistic Theory of Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press.

Safar, A., and Kormos, J. 2008. Revisiting problems with foreign language aptitude. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 46(2): 113–136.

Searle, J. 1962. Meaning and Speech Acts. Philosophical Review 71(4): 423–432.

Searle, J. 1968. Austin on Locutionary and Illocutionary Acts. Philosophical Review 77(4): 405–424

Searle, J. 1969. Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Searle, J. 1975. A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts. In K. Gunderson (ed.), Language, Mind and Knowledge. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science VII, 344–369. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Searle, J. 1976. A classification of illocutionary acts. Language in Society 5(1): 1–23.

Searle, J. R., and D. Vanderveken. 1985. Foundations of Illocutionary Logic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Świątek, A. 2016. The role of individual differences in the verbal aptitude of advanced learners of English to perform perlocutionary acts. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Filologicznej we Wrocławiu.

Vanderveken, D. 2002. Searle on meaning and action. In G. Grewendorf, and G. Meggle (eds.), Speech acts, Mind and Social Reality Discussions with Searle, Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, 141–161. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

Williams, C. 2007. Research methods. Journal of Business and Economic Research, Colorado: Grand Canyon University Press 5(3): 65–72.

Zdunkiewicz, D. 1993. Akty mowy. In J. Bartmiński (ed.), Encyklopedia kultury polskiej XX wieku. Tom 2: Współczesny język polski, 259–270. Wrocław: Wiedza o kulturze.

Download

Published
30-12-2019


Świątek, A. (2019). The art of non-verbal communication in perlocutionary giftedness. Linguistics Beyond and Within (LingBaW), 5(1), 135–147. https://doi.org/10.31743/lingbaw.5385

Adam Świątek 
State University of Applied Sciences in Konin https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6861-8403