Answering 2 questions about an article

You must answer these two questions based on the article I have sent as a file attached:

1. Content: How does the application of speech act theory further our understanding of the recitation of Sanskrit texts, according to Taylor?
2. Reflection: What is this interpretation missing, in your opinion?

Here are two simple answers to the two questions (which must not be copied!):

1. Within Sanskrit recitation, the pure act of reciting without any context being understood gives off the meaning of status from the speaker to the listeners – it can be said that this (a thing where the people listening don’t act know whats being said) can still convey meaning because of speech act theory.

2. This is a bit more up to your interpretation of course –it’s a religious ceremony and that is the main context rather than deliberately conveying status – just think about what aspects of such a religious ceremony aren’t accounted for by speech act theory

I have longer answers for both of these questions, which I will also send below. However, these were my best friends answers, so they must not be copied otherwise that would be plagiarism. I’m just sending the answers to you as it may help answering the questions/make it more clear. However, they can also not be paraphrased as with philosophy the words you choose to describe something have to be so coherent and clear – so please do not just rewrite these sentences but by using different words, as it would most likely end up not making sense.

Speech act theory which was formulated by J.L Austin sets out the difference between constative and performative sentences, establishing the literal abilities of the latter under countless circumstances. The recitation of the answer ‘I do’ in its disyllabic, three-lettered linguistic simplicity can result in a legal arrangement of marriage in many commonplace Christian wedding ceremonies. All utterances contain three simultaneous acts: A locutionary act which entails the phonetic, phatic and rhetic acts. Secondly, an illocutionary act, which accounts for the intention of the utterance, and finally the perlocutionary act which is the effect of the locutionary and illocutionary act. The application of speech act theory can further our understanding of the recitation of Sanskrit texts, according to Taylor. Taylor uses speech act theory to explore the functions of the verses in the Bhagavata-Purana, arguing for their perlocutionary significance (Taylor:2015:519)

According to Taylor speech act theory furthers our understanding of the recitation of Sanskrit texts, not semantically but due to the choice of Sanskrit as the language of utterance (Taylor, 2015 p519). This is significantly due to the fact that amongst Hindus Sanskrit is deemed an inherently powerful language with its own aura. Wittgenstein challenged the notion that words portray more than their semantic meaning (Taylor 2015, p520). Austin’s’ speech act theory was applied by Wade T.Wheelock to investigate ritual speech particularly in Vedic or tantric mantras.