A Cross-Cultural and Pragmatic Study of Felicity Conditions in the Same-Sex Marriage Discourse

Abstract

This paper investigates whether there are Felicity Conditions (FCs) for the same-sex marriage as being a contemporary practice of marriage relations in some countries. As such, the researchers adopt Austin's (1962) Felicity Conditions (FCs) to examine if conditions of satisfaction are applicable to the same-sex marriage in Christian and Islamic cultures. The researchers focus on analysing and discussing the social, religious, and linguistic conventional procedures of the speech acts of marriage, specifically in the same-sex marriage discourse. We find out that same-sex marriage in Christianity is totally different from the traditional marriage with regard to the social, religious, and linguistic conventions. Consequently, we concluded that same-sex marriage discourse has no FCs in contrast to the traditional marriage in Christianity as well as marriage in Islam which has not changed in form and opposite sex marriage.

The Fulfillment of Felicity Conditions in Speech Acts in Winfrey’s Speech Learn from Every Mistake

“…It would influence the felicity of an utterance. It was supported in the study conducted by Al-Husseini and Shaibani (2016), who stated that the contract of marriage should be performed with the intention of the couple to commit themselves to perform the marriage contract, and this corresponds with the sincerity and essential conditions of Austin's (1962) and Searle's (1969) F.C.s. It was reasonable because when an utterance, for example, is promising, if promising was felicitous in preparatory condition, the speaker was sincere that she/he had the willingness to do an action as mentioned in the utterance.…”

Felicity Condition of Expressive Speech Act Uttered by Public Figures in Covid-19 News

“…In addition, many researchers had conducted research about felicity condition, namely Hashim & Ghayth, Hadiati, and Hamidi. Al-Husseini & Al-Shaibani concluded that the felicity condition in same-sex marriages is different from the felicity condition in traditional marriages (Al-Husseini & Al-Shaibani, 2016), while Hadiati underlined that the felicity condition is important to conclude whether the speaker means what he says or not (Hadiati, 2019). In addition, Yuliarti et al, (2021) discuss the felicity condition of Winfrey's speech on YouTube.…”