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77908-01 - Seminar: Speech Acts in Written Communication (3 KP)
| Semester | Frühjahrsemester 2026 |
| Angebotsmuster | unregelmässig |
| Dozierende | Thomas Messerli (thomas.messerli@unibas.ch, BeurteilerIn) |
| Inhalt | When we think about speech acts, we often imagine spoken interaction and prototypical performatives such as apologies, requests, or declarations, i.e., cases where the right words in the right context bring about recognisable social actions. Yet written communication also abounds with actions accomplished through language: from customer-service emails and academic feedback to social-media posts, comment threads, and messaging apps. These written contexts give rise to particular functions of language and to realisations and interpretations that rely on genre, medium, and audience design. In this seminar, we explore how speech acts are performed, recognised, softened, intensified, or contested in written communication across various digital and non-digital genres. We revisit foundational approaches to speech-act theory and discuss how these frameworks have been adapted to the study of contemporary written discourse. Along the way, we examine how linguistic cues such as formulaic language, evidentials, mitigation devices, layout, and multimodal elements (such as emojis and typography) can act as IFIDs (illocutionary force indicating devices) or otherwise shape the interpretation of illocutionary force. A key challenge in studying written speech acts lies in establishing form-function connections across genres and platforms. We therefore take on board close reading as well as corpus-based and discourse-analytic methods, allowing us to compare explicit and implicit realisations of requests, offers, refusals, evaluations, apologies, and other acts. Throughout the semester, we engage with empirical studies that investigate written interaction across a broad range of written genres, and we consider how technological affordances reshape the ways actions are performed and understood. The course will integrate theoretical discussion with empirical analysis of authentic data. Students will work with examples and datasets in order to analyse how written speech acts operate in real contexts. Together we will explore the methodological and interpretive challenges of inferring function from form, and we will develop a more nuanced understanding of how speakers and writers perform actions through written language. |
| Lernziele | By the end of the course, students will have engaged with key theoretical approaches to speech acts and will have examined how these frameworks apply to written communication across diverse genres and platforms. They will have deepened their understanding of form–function relations, indirectness, mitigation, and other pragmatic phenomena central to written language use. Students will have worked with close reading, discourse-analytic, and corpus-based methods and will have applied these approaches to authentic examples and small datasets. Through collaborative discussion and individual analysis, they will have developed informed insights into how speakers and writers perform actions in written contexts and how these actions are shaped by medium, genre, and audience design. |
| Literatur | All obligatory reading for the course will be made available on ADAM. |
| Weblink | ADAM |
| Teilnahmevoraussetzungen | This course is open to students of English who have passed all three BA introductory modules (including the proseminar papers) and to MA students of English and MSG Sprache und Kommunikation. |
| Anmeldung zur Lehrveranstaltung | Please register for this course on services unibas. In order to ensure a good learning environment, we aim at no more than 20 students per linguistics seminar. We ask you to sign up for classes via the ADAM registration surveys, which will open on 1 January, 2026, 10am (CET) and close on 22 February, 2026, 2pm (CET): https://adam.unibas.ch/goto_adam_crs_1623802.html **Please only register for a maximum of TWO seminars and only for more than one if you really intend to take both courses.** Should you have not made it into one of the courses and you are only able to register on the list in a position higher than 20, we guarantee that we will take you in the course with the least student numbers. |
| Unterrichtssprache | Englisch |
| Einsatz digitaler Medien | Online-Angebot obligatorisch |
| Intervall | Wochentag | Zeit | Raum |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Mittwoch | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
Einzeltermine
| Datum | Zeit | Raum |
|---|---|---|
| Mittwoch 18.02.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Mittwoch 25.02.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Fasnachtsferien |
| Mittwoch 04.03.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Mittwoch 11.03.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Mittwoch 18.03.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Mittwoch 25.03.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Mittwoch 01.04.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Mittwoch 08.04.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Mittwoch 15.04.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Mittwoch 22.04.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Mittwoch 29.04.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Mittwoch 06.05.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Mittwoch 13.05.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Mittwoch 20.05.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Mittwoch 27.05.2026 | 12.15-14.00 Uhr | Nadelberg 6, Raum 11 |
| Module |
Modul: Advanced English Linguistics (Bachelor Studienfach: Englisch) Modul: English Linguistics (Master Studienfach: Englisch) Modul: Forschungspraxis und Vertiefung (Master Studiengang: Sprache und Kommunikation) Modul: Sprache als Prozess (Master Studiengang: Sprache und Kommunikation) |
| Prüfung | Lehrveranst.-begleitend |
| Hinweise zur Prüfung | regular and active participation; preparatory reading; oral presentation plus handout; short written task in connection with the presentation (around 1’500 words) |
| An-/Abmeldung zur Prüfung | Anmelden: Belegen; Abmelden: nicht erforderlich |
| Wiederholungsprüfung | keine Wiederholungsprüfung |
| Skala | Pass / Fail |
| Belegen bei Nichtbestehen | beliebig wiederholbar |
| Zuständige Fakultät | Philosophisch-Historische Fakultät, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Anbietende Organisationseinheit | Fachbereich Englische Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft |