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According to Austin, there are three types of acts that can be performed by every utterance, given the right circumstances.
According to Austin, there are three types of acts that can be performed by every utterance, given the right circumstances:
is the act of actually uttering.
is the act performed in saying something. The illocutionary act is not in one-to-one correspondence with the locution from which it is derived. There are different locutions that express the same illocution and vice-versa. For example, there are indirect speech acts, that is acts with a different force than the obviously deducible one. A typical example is the locution of the utterance ``Could you pass the salt?'' uttered at a dinner table. For a speaker of English in the particular situation this means ``Pass the salt, please'' and no one would assume that the speaker is indeed interested in whether the addressee would be able to pass the salt.
is the act performed by saying something in a particular context. It represents the change achieved each time, in a particular context. Depending on the kind of perlocution, different conditions have to hold in order for it to be achieved. For example, the addressee in the salt example has to realise that the speaker's intention is to ultimately get hold of the salt.
Verbs that name the speech act that they intend to effect are called Performatives . A performative uttered by the right person under the right circumstances has as a result a change in the world. For example, ``I pronounce you husband and wife'' uttered by a priest, in the church with all the legal and traditional aspects being settled, will have the actual effect of the couple referred to being husband and wife after the performative has taken place.
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