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 is a technical term in linguistics and the philosophy of language. The contemporary use
of the term goes back to John L. Austin's doctrine of locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts. Many
scholars identify 'speech acts' with illocutionary acts, rather than locutionary or perlocutionary acts. As with
the notion of illocutionary acts, there are different opinions on the nature of speech acts. The extension of
speech acts is commonly taken to include such acts as promising, ordering, greeting, warning, inviting
someone and congratulating.
 
  
  
 
Speech acts can be analysed on three levels: A locutionary act, the performance of an utterance: the
actual utterance and its ostensible meaning, comprising phonetic, phatic and rhetic acts corresponding to the
verbal, syntactic and semantic aspects of any meaningful utterance; an illocutionary act: the semantic
'illocutionary force' of the utterance, thus its real, intended meaning (see below); and in certain cases a
further perlocutionary act: its actual effect, such as persuading, convincing, scaring, enlightening, inspiring,
or otherwise getting someone to do or realize something, whether intended or not (Austin 1962).
 
 
The concept of an illocutionary act is central to the concept of a speech act. Although there are
numerous opinions as to what 'illocutionary acts' actually are, there are some kinds of acts which are widely
accepted as illocutionary, as for example promising, ordering someone, and bequeathing.
Following the usage of, for example, John R. Searle, "speech act" is often meant to refer just to the same
thing as the term illocutionary act, which John L. Austin had originally introduced in è
  


 
(published posthumously in 1962).
According to Austin's preliminary informal description, the idea of an "illocutionary act" can be
captured by emphasising that "by saying something, we something", as when someone orders someone
else to go by saying "Go!", or when a minister joins two people in marriage saying, "I now pronounce you
husband and wife." (Austin would eventually define the "illocutionary act" in a more exact manner.)
An interesting type of illocutionary speech act is that performed in the utterance of what Austin
calls performatives, typical instances of which are "I nominate John to be President", "I sentence you to ten
years' imprisonment", or "I promise to pay you back." In these typical, rather explicit cases of performative
sentences, the action that the sentence describes (nominating, sentencing, promising) is performed by the
utterance of the sentence itself.
2

  Greeting (in saying, "Hi John!", for instance), apologizing ("Sorry for that!"), describing something
("It is snowing"), asking a question ("Is it snowing?"), making a request and giving an order ("Could
you pass the salt?" and "Drop your weapon or I'll shoot you!"), or making a promise ("I promise I'll give
it back") are typical examples of "speech acts" or "illocutionary acts".
  In saying, "Watch out, the ground is slippery", Mary performs the speech act of warning Peter to be
careful.
  In saying, "I will try my best to be at home for dinner", Peter performs the speech act of promising
to be at home in time.
  In saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, please give me your attention", Mary requests the audience to be
quiet.
  In saying, "Race with me to that building over there!", Peter challenges Mary.


 
 

  
From i  + locution (from Latin   , from   to speak)


 
  (i  
 )
1. ( 

) The effect the terms used by a speaker can have on another speaker and
their emotions and responses.

 
 
  
From Latin   (³speech´), from   (³speak´): confer French   .


 
  (i  
 )
1. speech or discourse; a phrase; a form or mode of expression.
÷ 
 

 
 i

   
 -Marston.
 
 
  
From  (³not´) (an assimilated version of ) +    (³speech´), from Latin   


 
  (i  
 )
1. ( 

) The aim of a speaker in making an utterance as opposed to the meaning of
the terms used.

A speech act has three aspects to it. Note that we are here not interested in the denotative meaning, but rather
in the connotative meaning, i.e. what is actually inferred, brought about, and effected by the speech act.

†|
  This is the acoustic utterance that can also be transcribed into phonetic transcription. It is also
called the   . We referred to this earlier as the acoustic chain.
†÷
  Whenever you say something, you have an    to say something. There may be one or
more intentions behind the utterance. We say that there are one or more   
in the speech act.
†[
 This is the effect of the speech act on the hearer. There are two aspects of the i   
. First, there is the effect that the sender wants to evoke in the listener, and second the effect that is finally
achieved.

An example is an order from someone without authority: The effect that the sender wanted to evoke
was obedience; what was finally achieved, however, was disobedience. But how is it that we know what
illocutionary force is behind a speech act, i.e., how do we know that somebody asking "Are you free
tonight?" is not merely expecting a "yes/no"-answer, but wants to line up a date with us. We infer the
illocutionary act of a statement from its    This means that we presume, for one, that a speaker always
has some intention for wanting any information. The context here 'boy-girl-evening-free time' allows the
listener to deduce 'He wants to spend his time with me.¶ If the context were such that both the speaker and the
listener have part-time jobs at McDonalds, the illocutionary act could well be very different, namely "Could
you take my shift tonight? (So I could go on a date with someone else?)".Whether a context counts as a valid
context of a speech act usually rests on a number of    
that, together, render that context. There are
also always a number of conditions that have to be fulfilled so that a speech act can be interpreted as
intended. "I now pronounce you husband and wife", for example is valid only if the speaker is entitled to
wedcouples, the two are willing and legally qualified to marry, all persons are present in an appropriate
environment, such as a church, or a court, and so on. Most of these conditions are a matter of    . In
other words, whether a priest has the authority to marry couples, rests on our Christian convention of entitling
such people with this authority. A promise is valid only if the convention of truthfulness is acknowledged by
the promising person. As such, a directive, such as the invitation, is subject to interpretation according to
different conventions of that specific condition. For instance, the invitation "Call me whenever you want" has
become, by convention, to function also as a way of expressing a general willingness to help a person. The
offer itself is thus usually not expected to be taken up at 4:30 in the morning. The pledge "I'll pay you back as
soon as I get the money." on the other hand, is usually taken literally, i.e. our conventions for dealing with
money matters are usually literal.



There are three factors in a verbal communication: Locution. Illocution, and Perlocution.

The three components of a communication, from a pragmatic point of view, are:

‘ Locution--the semantic or literal significance of the utterance;

‘ Illocution--the intention of the speaker; and
‘ Perlocution--how it was received by the listener.

! Here is a fictitious example (although a very similar one in Washington recently resulted in the
firing of a very high government official). Take the word ½howlee.Š

! The American Dictionary of Fictitious words defines this word as, "Early missionary slang
meaning--one who howls a lot." That is the locutionary significance.

! To a local inhabitant of Hawaii, the word "howlee" historically has the meaning of an outsider. The
word usually connotes considerable contempt.

! To tourists in Hawaii, the word "howlee" signifies an aura of honorary Hawaiian status. These,
then, are the three perlocutionary possibilities.
 Two types of locutionary act are utterance acts, where something is said (or a sound is made) and
which may not have any meaning, and propositional acts, where a particular reference is made.

: statements may be judged true or false because they aim to describe a state of affairs in the
world.

 !At the library," "I have class until 5 today," "out

": statements attempt to make the other person's actions fit the propositional content.

  !"call me," "pick me up at 8," "call the cell"

# ! statements which commit the speaker to a course of action as described by the
propositional content.

  !be back at 5," "I'll meet you at 7," "bars all night"

 ! statements that express the ³sincerity condition of the speech act´.

  !I hate this weather," "School sucks," "I love Fridays

$$: To change an institutional state of affairs.

 ! "You're fired," "Play ball," "Chapter at 7 or you're fined"

%!To determine what is the case in an institution.

  ! "I find him innocent,´ ³He is guilty´


! a phatic expression is one whose only function is to perform a social task, as opposed to
conveying information.

  ! ³You¶re welcome.´ is not intended to convey the message that the hearer is welcome; it
is a phatic response to being thanked, which in turn is a phatic whose function is to be polite in response
to a gift.