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Speech Act Theory is one of the foundational theories of pragmatics. It was developed by the philosopher J.L. Austin (1911-1960) and subsequently refined and extended by John Searle (born 1932). The central insight of speech act theory is that language is not just used to describe the world — it is used to do things. When we speak, we perform actions: we promise, warn, request, apologise, declare, congratulate, threaten, and much more.
Austin's theory, presented in his posthumously published lectures How to Do Things with Words (1962), began with a distinction between constatives and performatives, but eventually developed into a more comprehensive three-part analysis of speech acts.
Austin observed that some utterances do not describe a state of affairs — they perform an action. He called these performatives.
These utterances are not true or false — they are felicitous (successful) or infelicitous (unsuccessful). A promise is not true or false; it is either sincere or insincere, binding or non-binding.
Austin recognised that performatives can only succeed if certain conditions are met. These are called felicity conditions — the conditions that must be satisfied for a speech act to be performed successfully.
For example, "I now pronounce you husband and wife" is only felicitous if:
If any of these conditions are not met, the performative is infelicitous — the action fails. Austin called these failed performatives misfires and abuses.
Key Definition: Felicity conditions — the conditions that must be satisfied for a speech act to be performed successfully. If they are not met, the speech act is infelicitous (it misfires or is abused).
Austin eventually moved beyond the performative/constative distinction and proposed that every utterance performs three simultaneous acts:
The locutionary act is the act of producing a meaningful utterance — saying something with a particular form and meaning. It encompasses:
In simpler terms, the locutionary act is what is said — the literal propositional content of the utterance.
Example: "It's cold in here." — The locutionary act is the utterance of a statement about the temperature.
The illocutionary act is the act performed in saying something — the speaker's communicative intention, the function the utterance is intended to serve. This is the level of meaning that speech act theory is primarily concerned with.
Example: "It's cold in here." — The illocutionary act might be:
The same locutionary act can perform different illocutionary acts depending on context.
Key Definition: Illocutionary act — the communicative function or force of an utterance: what the speaker intends to do by saying it (e.g., request, promise, warn, apologise, declare). Also called the illocutionary force.
The perlocutionary act is the effect the utterance has on the listener — the consequences it produces, whether intended or not.
Example: "It's cold in here."
Perlocutionary effects are not always what the speaker intended. A warning might cause fear, relief, or annoyance depending on the listener and context.
Key Definition: Perlocutionary act — the actual effect or consequence of an utterance on the listener's feelings, thoughts, or actions, whether intended by the speaker or not.
| Level | Question | Example ("It's cold in here") |
|---|---|---|
| Locutionary | What was said? | A statement about the temperature of the room. |
| Illocutionary | What was the speaker doing by saying it? | Requesting that someone close the window. |
| Perlocutionary | What was the effect on the listener? | The listener closed the window. |
John Searle built on Austin's work in his book Speech Acts (1969) and subsequent publications. Searle's main contributions include a systematic taxonomy of speech acts, a detailed account of felicity conditions, and the concept of indirect speech acts.
Searle classified illocutionary acts into five categories:
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