Explain Austin's theory of speech acts.
My theory of speech acts posits that utterances have more than just a literal meaning; they are actions. I distinguished three sorts of acts performed in uttering something: the locutionary act (the act of saying something with a determinate sense and reference), the illocutionary act (the act performed in saying something, such as warning, promising, or requesting), and the perlocutionary act (the effect achieved by saying something, such as persuading or amusing).
Ask John L. Austin the follow-up →