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1.2. The Characteristics of Grammatical Structure of Speech Acts
First a grammatical point should be noted, since speech acts are linguistic acts and hence have a grammatical structure: their components stand in morphological, syntactic and semantic dependence relations (as well as phonetic and phonological relations). Not surprisingly, Austin distinguishes between constatives or statements declaring something to be the case and explicit performatives or statements which are also actions. He then, however, withdraws that distinction (1962:121), so it would seem that constatives and performatives are both speech acts. If that is so, the notion of speech acts covers a variety of linguistic expressions to the point of ambiguity. Indeed, the statement: ‘there is a bull in the field’ can be intended and/or taken either as a warning or as a mere piece of information. But this ambiguity is a result of determining performative utterances without distinguishing between the speech act, the performing statement in which the speech act is brought about, the position of the speaker and his intentions, as well as the relations between speaker and interlocutor. Reinach explains that the social act (speech act) is not divided into an independent act-accomplishment and an accidental observation (Konstatierung) about it; rather, it forms an intimate unity of voluntary act and voluntary utterance. In this case the experience is not possible without the utterance, since the utterance is necessary for achieving the act’s indicative function (kundgebende Funktion) (1913:41).
Besides, from a grammatical point of view, there is a distinction between speech acts expressed by verba dicendi on one hand, and verba cogitandi and sentiendi, on the other. For the grammarian, as Bühler points out, speech acts are verbal expressions or declarative utterances performed by means of the accusative combined with the infinitive and verbs referring to speech and speaking (verba dicendi) such as: promising, commanding, decreeing, requesting, questioning, ordering, imparting information or accepting a promise. A classical example is Cicero’s ordering Carthage to be destroyed (Delenda Carthago!).[1] The verbal utterance ‘I order C to be destroyed’ combines the verb with an infinitive and an accusative object (C). The infinitive combined with the simple present expresses a determined temporal relation: a speech act occurs in the present tense, or at the time the speaker (the person of the verb) is speaking. So, the present tense refers to the time at which the speaker is speaking. The speaker is momentarily indicated by the personal pronoun ‘I’ which refers to the speech act in which it is pronounced. If the infinitive (to destroy) is modified by a predicate, as in: ‘I order that C be destroyed’, the accusative case expresses the subject of the action (C).