3 Basic Speech Acts
We use language to make statements, as in all of the previous examples. But we also use language for other things. The various uses of language we call ‘speech acts.’ A number of different speech acts are indicated in Klallam by putting a little unstressed word after the verb.
Two of the most common uses of any language are to tell someone what to do and to ask someone a question that can be answered with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.’ Every language has special parts of its grammar for these uses. These speech acts are particularly easy in Klallam. We will be seeing more similar little words in other sections.
