Speech act as basis for dialoguecoherence: a case of English –Yoruba translation
List of Authors
  • B.M, Tunde-Awe , Oyeniyi, Adeniyi-Egbeola Folakemi , Yekeen, Bello

Keyword
  • Speech acts, dialogue coherence, pragmatics, assertive, directives, commissives, expressives, declaratives and felicity

Abstract
  • This study analysed speech act as a basis for dialogue coherence in English language and its relative translation unit in Yoruba language. The study viewed speech act theory as it dealt with functions and uses of language since it is said that speech acts are all the acts we perform through speaking. The study dealt with how speech act theories apply to English language dialogue and its translating equivalence in Yoruba language. The study modified and reframed Searle’s felicity conditions according to the categories of speech act to suit this study. The study hypothesised that speech acts in English language can be relatively translated into Yoruba language despite their cultural and systematic divergences between the two languages. The finding showed that both languages used a variety of patterns of speech acts among others in theirs dialogues which eventually revealed that speech act is a basis for dialogue coherence.

Reference
  • 1. Adegbija, E. (1987) Speech act functions: Dimension of communication and Meaning in the English Language in Nigeria. ITL Review of applied Linguistics76: 43-62.
    2. Austin, J. L. (1962).How to do things with words.London: Oxford University, Press.
    3. Baker, M. (1992).In other Words: A Course book on Translation, London and New York: Routledge.
    4. Bauer, N. (2015). How to do things with Pornography. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press
    5. Crystal, D. (1985). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Oxford: basil Blackwell Limited.
    6. Dore, J. (1979). Children’s Illocutionary Acts. In: Freedle, R. (ed) Discourse comprehension and production, pp. 20-60
    7. Ford, A. (2014) ‘Action and Passion’. Philosophical Topics, Oxford: Oxford University Press
    8. Green, M. (2017). ‘Assertion’, in Oxford Handbook Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press
    9. Green, M. (2019). ‘Assertions’, in M. Sbisa and K. Turner (eds.). Handbook of Pragmatics, 2, II: Pragmatics of Speech Actions (de Gruyter-Mouton), 287-410
    10. Green, M. (2020). The Philosophy of Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press
    11. Gustafsson, M. (2012). ‘Trusting One’s Senses: McDowell on Belief, Experience, and Justification’. In Re-thinking of Epistemology, 2nd edited by Gunther Abel and James Conant, Berlin: De Gruyter
    12. Harmer, J.(2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching. PEARSON Longman.
    13. Lawal, A. (1996). Implications and applications of Semantic field and componential analysis in
    14. vocabulary teaching in Glotto didactica Vol. xxiv. Pp. 63-72
    15. Lavin, D. (2013). ‘Must There Be Basic Action?’ Nous 47 (2): Oxford: Oxford University Press
    16. Leech, G. (1983). Principles and Pragmatics, London: Longman Group Ltd, Pp. 101-106
    17. Lockhart, J. & Lockhart, T. (2017).‘Moral Luck and the Possibility of Agential Disjunctivism’.European Journal of Philosophy,23,56-61
    18. Lycan, W. (2018).Philosophy of Language: A Contemporary Introduction, 3rd edition, London:Routledge
    19. Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2, 39-50
    20. MacFarlane, J. (2011). ‘What is Assertion?’ in Brown and Cappelen (eds.) Assertion: New Philosophical Essays, Oxford: Oxford University Press
    21. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, (2006). London: Oxford University Press.
    22. Palmer, F.R. (1981). Semantics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
    23. Sbisa, M. (2013).‘Locution, Illocution, Perlocution’. In Pragmatics of Speech Actions, edited by Marina Sbisa and Ken Turner, Berlin: De Gruyter.
    24. Stuchlik, J. (2013). ‘From Volitionalism to the Dual Aspect theory of Action’.Philosophia
    25. Searle, J.R. (1979). Expression and Meaning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.