In linguisticpragmatics, the term metalocutionary act is sometimes used for a speech act that refers to the forms and functions of the discourse itself rather than continuing the substantive development of the discourse. The term metalocutionary act originated as metalocution in functional descriptions of intonation in English and German, by analogy with locution, illocution and perlocution in speech act theory. The term metalocutionary act has developed a more general meaning and may include, for example, quotation acts and comments on preceding speech acts.
Definition
Metalocutionary deixis is the denotation of utteranceconstituents at points and over intervals in the temporal structure of utterances by means of prosodic deictic indices such as pitch accents, intonation contours and boundary tones. In the prosodic literature, "mark" is often used informally instead of the strict "denote". The metalocutionary functions are structural rather than attitudinal or emotional functions of prosody. A precursor of the concept of metalocutionary function is found in the configurational function of intonation proposed by the Prague School of linguistics, with the more specific culmination function and delimitation function, as in accentuation on the one hand and domain or boundary marking on the other.
Examples
Example 1: In orthography, e.g. Are Henry and Catherine REALly going?, capitalisation of the syllablereal and punctuation are orthographic metalocutions: capitalisation denotes the syllable real and the wordreally, of which the syllable is a constituent, while the punctuation denotes the domain of the question function. Example 2: In the pronunciation of Are Henry and Catherine REALly going?, the pitch accent is a prosodic metalocution which denotes the syllable real and the word really, and the final rising pitch is a prosodic metalocution which denotes the end portion of the utterance ; the global rising pitch is a prosodic metalocution which denotes an intonation domain.
