Complaints	Suggestions	Compliments
And another thing...	Faster checkout.	Good work.
Requests	Apologies	Refusals
Would you like to...	I didn't mean it.	I don't think so.

Above are some common speech acts. Click on each one to see a definition of what the particular speech act is, what research exists on that speech act in different languages, and what we know about that speech act in the Spanish language through research and data from native speakers.

Speech Acts: Overview

Recent advances in speech act theory and conversation analysis are rooted in the idea that we can use words not only to describe situations but also to perform communicative actions in conversation.

Therefore, when we say things like:

• 'The food is delicious'
• 'I wish I could make it to the party, but I have a lot of work to do'
• 'Watch out!'

we are actually communicating actions like

• compliments
• refusals
• warnings

Thus, under the correct circumstances, a speaker can "perform" things like apologies, requests or refusals.

We can also perform communicative actions without directly naming them. For example, to realize a refusal, someone may not always say:

• 'I can't go to your party; I have a lot of work to do'

Instead, we can perform the same action indirectly. So, if someone says:

• 'I wish I could make it to the party; I have a lot work to do'

the whole utterance can be understood as a refusal without directly naming the action 'refusal.'

We use speech acts daily and in a variety of situations. It is often the situation that determines how we go about 'doing' things (i.e. asking a friend to borrow $1.00 vs. asking a professor for an extension on a paper).