Perlocutionary act

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. This is contrasted with locutionary and illocutionary acts (which are other levels of description, rather than different "types" of speech acts).

The term was introduced by J. L. Austin in his work "How to Do Things With Words".

Unlike the notion of illocutionary act, which describes the linguistic function of an utterance, a perlocutionary effect is in some sense external to the performance. It may be thought of, in a sense, as the effect of the locutionary act. Therefore, when examining perlocutionary acts, the effect on the hearer or reader is emphasized.

As an example, consider the following utterance: "By the way, I have a CD of Debussy; would you like to borrow it?" Its illocutionary function is an "offer", while its intended perlocutionary effect might be to impress the listener, or to show a friendly attitude, or to encourage an interest in a particular type of music.


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  • perlocutionary — perlocution, n. /perr leuh kyooh sheuh ner ee/, adj. Philos., Ling. (of a speech act) producing an effect upon the listener, as in persuading, frightening, amusing, or causing the listener to act. Cf. illocutionary, locutionary. [1950 55; PER +… …   Universalium

  • 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

  • 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… …   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

  • illocutionary act — (illocutionary force ) Term introduced by J. L. Austin, in his book How to Do Things with Words, for an act done in uttering what one does. Thus in saying ‘I promise’ in suitable circumstances I make a promise; in saying ‘Hooray!’ I cheer you on …   Philosophy dictionary

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

  • ПЕРЛОКУТИОНАРНОЕ ДЕЙСТВИЕ — (perlocutionary act) см. Речевое действие …   Большой толковый социологический словарь

  • 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

  • Performative utterance — The notion of performative utterances was introduced by J. L. Austin. Although he had already used the term in his 1964 paper Other minds , today s usage goes back to his later, remarkedly different exposition of the notion in the 1955 William… …   Wikipedia

  • language, philosophy of — Philosophical study of the nature and use of natural languages and the relations between language, language users, and the world. It encompasses the philosophical study of linguistic meaning (see semantics), the philosophical study of language… …   Universalium

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