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involved. For example, consider a warning, which is a type of directive. The propositional
content condition on all directives is to predicate a future act of the hearer. Thus a
warning such as I warn you to stop doing this constitutes an expressed locutionary act
because its propositional content predicates a future act of the hearer.
On the other hand, the propositional content is implied if the utterance does not
contain an expression of the propositional content condition for the illocutionary act
involved. For example, the utterance I warn you that your actions are unreasonable
constitutes an implied locutionary act (reconsider your actions) because its propositional
content does not predicate a future act of the hearer; instead it predicates a quality of the
hearer.
Some types of illocutionary acts don’t have any specific propositional content
conditions. Questions can have any proposition as their propositional content. Therefore,
a common method for implying a locution is for the speaker to express a pre-condition for
the proposition of interest. For example Do you have a watch? Expresses a pre-condition
for having the time.
The same utterance may contain an implied locution on one occasion but an expressed
locution on another. For example, if you ask your friend Do you have a watch? In order to help
you decide what to get him/her for the birthday party, then the proposition of interest is
expressed by the utterance. However, if the same utterance is used to ask the time, the
proposition of interest is only implied by the utterance.

LITERAL AND NONLITERAL LOCUTIONARY ACTS
A locutionary act can be either literal or nonliteral, depending upon whether the
speaker actually means what is said or not.for example a warning Cigarette smoking is
dangerous to your health means exactly what it says; thus, it constitutes a literal
locutionary act. On the other hand, the locution I could eat a horse is nonliteral. Nonliteral
locutionary acts are those for which a literal interpretation is either impossible or absurd
within the context of the utterance. Nonliteral locutionary acts can be analysed as flouting
Grice’s maxim of Quality as hey involve someone saying something that is blatanly false
under the circumstances.
Consider some other examples that require nonliteral interpretation:
1. If you want your wheel clamped, park here.
2. Why don’t you shout so everyone can hear?
3. I am sure it will kill you to turn down the TV.

SPEECH EVENTS

A speech event is an activity in which participants interact via language in some
conventional way to arrive at some outcome. It may include an obvious central/master
speech act, such as 'I won't go anywhere', as in a speech event of refusal, but it will also
include other utterances leading up to and subsequently reacting to that central action. In
most cases, requests, refusals, invitations are not made by means of a single speech act
suddenly uttered, but are typically speech events
The analysis of speech events is a way of studying how more gets communicated
than is said.