Entry 1 (part 1): Speechless in Speech Acts

A speech act is "an utterance conceived as an act by which the speaker does something".

That's how Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics defines a speech act. Surely, a number of people may not be able to grasp the meaning of this, unless instances are given. This was where things got very intriguing because here, we got to share our experiences and thoughts about this extensive topic. The main reason behind "intercultural miscommunication", as I hope many would agree, is the lack of understanding of how different people (i.e. people of different backgrounds) perceive the same speech act differently. Some differences in perception are too little to be harmful, but there are those that really rub people entirely the wrong way. Understanding this phenomenon would naturally clear up any misunderstandings but personally, I was more interested in comprehending why certain cultures behave in such a way to a certain speech act.

Dr. Deng has explained that the study of speech acts is divided into three general categories: "cross-cultural variations", "interlanguage variations" and "sociopragmatic variations". Besides the importance of knowing these categories for the sake of my research paper due later this term, it's difficult to distinguish among the three merely from the onset. I'll make things easier to understand by giving examples: In the context of "cross-cultural variations", think a single speech act e.g. paying a compliment to someone. Now, imagine that there are two people from the US and two people from China. How would the two Americans pay compliments to each other and respond accordingly? How would the two Chinese people do the same thing? More importantly, what are the differences the two groups bear, despite doing the same thing? That's "cross-cultural variation". Then, what about "interlanguage variations"? Imagine two people; one from the US and the other from Chinese. Both are studying the same language, say, the Chinese language. Given how each of them has different understandings of their own native language, how will this affect their perception on the common language (in this case, Chinese)? Then, there's the interesting category, "sociopragmatic variations". How will a speech act differ if different social factors come into play between two people? I absolutely mean no offence by this, but how does a college student speak compared to an educationally underprivileged (economic factor)? How would a speech act differ between genders (transgender)? How would a speech act differ between people of different cultures (sociocultural factor)?

The topic on sociopragmatic variations is an intriguing one; it's interesting enough for me to even go around asking people on their take for a certain speech act on my own accord. I can recall my National Service (NS) days where I had the opportunity to interact with people with different social backgrounds. These people include ex-convicts (yes, ex-convicts who has been imprisoned for various reasons, some are empathetic while others are downright ridiculous), former drug addicts, educationally gifted and those from financially strapped households. Mixing with these people, mainly made up of hokkien pengs and mat rempits (Malay term for Malay bikers) was utterly enjoyable because not only they know how to have fun - making improvised flamethrowers, telling off unreasonable superiors without flinching and even talking about random topics in the wee hours - they seem to have a common understanding: they particularly hate judgemental behaviour. That's why they would sometimes violently respond to certain speech acts that are ambiguous to the point of being deftly insinuating. Of course, another common observation is how they speak in a lowbrow expression; they like to liberally use English words in their dialogue to impart nuances that are otherwise not expressible in Malay. English words such as "power" and "steady" are loosely used in certain speech acts for various reasons, one being to create a casual ambiance for two people to be comfortable in.

Here's a thought: Can an educated individual speak to another educated individual in a lowbrow expression? I don't see the harm in doing that, personally. Can an educated individual speak to an educationally underprivileged in a lowbrow expression? I actually think he should. Can an educated individual speak to an educationally underprivileged in a highbrow expression? I actually think he shouldn't, because by doing that, the speaker may be sending the listener the wrong signals. By wrong signals, I mean unintentionally making one look cocky, or worse, putting the listener in a condescending light. Why do I think this way? Personally, I think it's easier for an educated individual to speak in a lowbrow expression than an educationally underprivileged to speak in a highbrow expression. Of course, one must bear in mind that not all educationally underprivileged individuals speak in a lowbrow expression; the same goes for educated people speaking in a highbrow expression.

Here's another instance of sociopragmatic variation that deals with transgender issues. I did some unofficial social experimenting by asking some of my female friends on their frank responses to a certain flattering compliment, and how different social factors may result differently. My compliment is on their looks; in other words, I complimented on how attractive they are (whether they are or not was out of the question, obviously). The candidate gave different kinds of responses, and then I tweaked the situation to see how their responses would change even for the same speech act. For example, I gave a flattering compliment about their looks. Female candidate A responded by being grateful and even adding in a joke. Female candidate B returned my compliment by complimenting me on something else. Female candidate C deflected my compliment topic by asking me for the rationale behind my compliment. Female candidate D turned down my compliment, humbling herself in modest (or coy?) fashion. Then, I altered the speech act by asking how their responses would have differed if say, I was a girl or a Western foreigner instead. It was intriguing to see their opinion on this speech act, some I could fully understand while others were seriously bewildering. To my amusement, some have cared to explained how a poorly executed compliment would easily result in sexual harassment.

What do the different ways of responding to a compliment mean? Well, they can be categorised into four strategies: "accepting", "returning", "rejecting" and "deflecting". The popular trend nowadays when receiving a compliment is to accept it, although it's not necessarily the right thing to do. Accepting a compliment is a form of agreement and gratitude, and I think this is why people are gradually adopting this strategy as the norm. Returning a compliment is also somewhat like accepting it, but it emphasises on adding something further on top of the compliment, probably as a way of putting both of them on the same level of flattery or humility. Rejecting a compliment means disagreeing to it and further denigrating/humbling oneself. Deflecting a compliment is an interesting strategy because not only does it mean giving an explanation based on the received compliment or doubting it, it can also be an artful way of either accepting or rejecting a compliment (or maybe, neither one). Case in point: I have a Japanese female friend from the Asia-Pacific University (APU) who came to Singapore for an intensive English programme. I complimented about her looks on Skype, saying how she is a spitting image of one of my favourite celebrities. Her frank response almost threw me off my chair in laughter: lit. "Actually, a lot of my friends have claimed how I look like a number of celebrities, so I don't really know who I look like in the end." This was most definitely an act of deflection, but did it connote a sense of acceptance or rejection? If you think about it, it can go either way; it's an acceptance because my compliment was something she has similar experiences before, and she was grateful about it. It could also be a rejection because it's a deft response of indifference; in other words, she shrugged off my compliment by claiming how it wasn't something unprecedented. So, did she accept or reject my compliment? Out of personal consolation, I'd just want to think that she accepted it because honestly, if I think that it was a rejection, then I'll be giving myself a big blow to my self-confidence and effort （・Ａ・）

I actually have a lot more things to comment pertaining to speech acts, but for the sake of my readers, I've decided to split this extensive post into two parts, one concerning my personal experiences and the other on my personal opinions on the differences between the responses to a compliment by the English and Chinese speakers. Please follow up with my second post accordingly.