ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS

J.L. Austin says that an Illocutionary is an act performed in saying something, as contrasted with a Locutinary act, the act of saying something, and also contrasted with a perlocutionary act, an act performed by saying something.

Searle (1975) set up the following classification of illocutionary speech acts:

• assertives = speech acts that commit a speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition.
• directives = speech acts that are to cause the hearer to take a particular action, e.g. requests, commands and advice
• commissives = speech acts that commit a speaker to some future action, e.g. promises and oaths
• expressives = speech acts that express on the speaker's attitudes and emotions towards the proposition, e.g. congratulations, excuses and thanks
• declarations = speech acts that change the reality in accord with the proposition of the declaration, e.g. baptisms, pronouncing someone guilty or pronouncing someone husband and wife.