A Pragmatic Study of Speech Acts in Fitzgerald’s ‘Crazy Sunday’ in terms of Searle’s Classification

Abstract

By using Scott Fitzgerald's short tale "Crazy Sunday" and Searle's classification of speech acts, this study clarifies speech act theory. The philosopher Searle, classified speech acts into five categories; Declaratives, commissives, representatives, directives and expressives. Utterances of the above mentioned short story have been analyzed and classified into the categories proposed by Searle to see which category of speech acts is most frequently used in this short story which provide us with a new interpretation and impression about Fitzgerald’s ‘Crazy Sunday’ short story. Also, the style of the author has been overviewed in this paper. In this study, utterances are evaluated and categorized in accordance with Searle's taxonomy of speech actions, with each category's frequency displayed underneath:- Declaratives were used 27 times. Representatives were used 69 times. Commissives were used 9 times. Directives were used 49 times. Expressives were used 31 times. In this respect, it was clear that the representative of speech acts were the most frequently used in this short story, so we get an impression that the description of stories and events is the most prevailing atmosphere in it.