Locutionary act

Locutionary act

In Linguistics and the Philosophy of mind, a locutionary act is the performance of an utterance, and hence of a speech act. The term equally refers to the surface meaning of an utterance because, according to Austin's posthumous "How To Do Things With Words", a speech act should analysed as a locutionary act (ie the actual utterance and it's ostensible meaning, comprising phonetic, phatic and rhetic acts corresponding to the verbal, syntactic and semantic aspects of any meaningful utterance), as well as an illocutionary act (the semantic 'illocutionary force' of the utterance, thus it's real, intended meaning), and in certain cases a further perlocutionary act (ie it's actual effect, whether intended or not).

For example, my saying to you "Don't go into the water" (a locutionary act with distinct phonetic, syntactic and semantic features) counts as warning you not to go into the water (an illocutionary act), and if you heed my warning I have thereby succeeded in persuading you not to go into the water (a perlocutionary act). This taxonomy of speech acts was inherited by John R. Searle, Austin's pupil at Oxford and subsequently an influential exponent of speech act theory.

ee also

* J. L. Austin
* Perlocutionary act
* Illocutionary act


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  • locutionary act — A saying. A locutionary act is the basic linguistic action of voicing (or writing or otherwise making public) a meaningful sequence of words …   Philosophy dictionary

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  • locutionary — /loh kyooh sheuh ner ee/, adj. Philos., Ling. pertaining to the act of conveying semantic content in an utterance, considered as independent of the interaction between the speaker and the listener. Cf. illocutionary, perlocutionary. [1950 55;… …   Universalium

  • locutionary — lo•cu•tion•ar•y [[t]loʊˈkyu ʃəˌnɛr i[/t]] adj. ling. pho of or pertaining to the act of conveying semantic content in an utterance, considered as independent of the interaction between the speaker and the listener • Etymology: 1950–55 …   From formal English to slang

  • locutionary — lōˈkyüsh(ə)ˌnerē adjective Etymology: locution + ary : of or relating to the physical act of saying something considered apart from the statement s effect or intention compare illocutionary herein perlocutionary herein …   Useful english dictionary

  • Speech act — For the US Act, see SPEECH Act of 2010. Speech Act 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.… …   Wikipedia

  • Perlocutionary act — A perlocutionary act (or perlocutionary effect) is a speech act, as viewed at the level of its psychological consequences , such as persuading, convincing, scaring, enlightening, inspiring, or otherwise getting someone to do or realize something …   Wikipedia

  • Illocutionary act — is a technical term introduced by John L. Austin in investigations concerning what he calls performative and constative utterances . According to Austin s original exposition in How to Do Things With Words , an illocutionary act is an act (1) for …   Wikipedia

  • speech act — noun Any of illocutionary acts, locutionary acts and perlocutionary acts …   Wiktionary

  • J. L. Austin — Infobox Philosopher region = Western Philosophy era = 20th century philosophy color = #B0C4DE image caption = name = John Langshaw Austin birth = March 26, 1911 death = death date and age|1960|2|8|1911|3|26 school tradition = Linguistic… …   Wikipedia

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