The Analysis of the Characters’ Speech Acts in the Dialogues of Night School

【Abstract】Raymond Carver， the father of minimalism， is an American short-story writer and poet. And this article will analyze the characters speech acts in the dialogues of Night School according to Austins Speech Act Theory to help readers understand the subject of this novel thoroughly.

【Key Words】Night School; dialogues; characters speech acts

【作者簡介】王蘇（1991-），女，漢族，四川眉山人，四川大學(xué)錦江學(xué)院，助教，碩士研究生，研究方向：英語語言文學(xué)。

I. Introduction

Raymond Carver is called “the father of minimalism” with his plain language and objective narration. Night Schools simple and straightforward dialogue contains a wealth of meaning. Speech act theory is put forward by John Austin in 1955. Later， John Austin and his student John Searle developed speech act theory from their observation that language is used to do things other than just refer to the truth or falseness of particular statements. Therefore， this paper will use the speech act theory to analyze the short story Night School to make readers have a better understanding of underlying meaning of the sentence and the topic of the short story.

II. Theoretical Foundation

Speech act theory is firstly raised by Austin and he publishes a book named “How to Do Things with Words” in 1962. Austin claims that to speak something is to do something. Once the speaker makes a meaning utterance and it is understood by the hearer， we say that the speaker commits a certain act， which is so called a speech act.He classifies sentences into constatives and performatives. The fomer is to make statements and assertions， the latter does not only say something， but also do things and perform acts. In Austins further study， he proposes that speech acts can be divided into three levels. The first is the locutionary act， which refers to the referential or factual meaning of the sentence. The second is the illocutionary act. It refers to the function the speaker intends to fulfill， or the action the speaker intends to accomplish in uttering the words. The perlocutionary act refers to the utterances effect on the thoughts or actions of the other person.

III. Characters Speech Acts in the Dialogues of Night School

Most of Carvers stories concentrate on the life of the working class. By describing their poverty， unemployment， unhappy marriage and other problems， Carver reflects and enables his readers to experience the characters loss， depression…. Night school tells a story about “my” experience with two women in a bar. The main character is a man whos marriage had just fallen apart and he met two women in the bar. And we can figure out what kind of people “I” am through the analysis of the utterance. From “I only have thirty cents”， which was said after “I” heard the suggestion of buying a six-pack beers with them. “I only have thirty cents” is a statement of fact that “I” dont have money， but the illocutionary meaning is that “I” dont want to buy the beers and you should buy them if you want to. Furthermore， the utterance “Theyre waiting for me upstairs” is said after “my” father asked “me” what “I” had told them. “I” didnt answer the question directly， instead， “I” used a declarative form to answer the question which underling meaning is that “I” agree to lend them the car.

By depending on the whole context of the novel， we can be easy to identify the illocutionary force of an utterance. And through the above analysis， we can see “I” am a person who is obsessed in alcohol， poor， and has no right to speak in “my” family. In a word， “I” am a loser.

IV. Conclusion

There are few people who take the speech act theory to analyze the short novel of Carver. The dialogues in Night School are simple， but we can still identify the illocutionary force of the utterances. We must remember that if we want to infer the intention of an utterance， we have to consider its form， content， and the context in which it occurs. Thus， the features of the losers are in our head and we can have a better understanding of the speech act theory， especially the illocutionary force of an utterance.

References：

[1]Paltridge， Brian. Making Sense of Discourse Analysis[M]. Australia： Antipodean Educational Enterprises，2000：15.

[2]Austin， J.L. How to Do Things with Words[M]. Beijing： Foreign language Teaching and Research Press，2002.

[3]Paltridge， Brian. Making Sense of Discourse Analysis[M]. Australia： Antipodean Educational Enterprises，2000：15.

[4]Carver， Raymound. Night School[J].英語世界，2014（02）：30.

[5]Carver， Raymound. Night School[J]. 英語世界，2014（02）：25.