Speech act theory

Speech act theory studies how utterances perform actions, such as asserting facts, making promises, issuing requests, or declaring a meeting open.

Locutionary act: The act of producing a meaningful linguistic expression with a particular sense and reference. It isolates the words and literal content that make an utterance possible.
Performative utterance: An utterance that performs an action through being spoken, such as naming a ship or making a promise. It displays the theory's central possibility in an explicit form.
J. L. Austin: A British philosopher whose lectures established the modern study of performative language and speech acts. His analysis of performatives launched the theory's central questions.
Legal speech act: A verbal or written act that creates or changes legal relations under recognized rules. Legal declarations show how authorized words can alter social and institutional reality.
Truth-conditional semantics: An approach that explains sentence meaning through the conditions under which sentences are true. It focuses on truth and reference where speech act theory also asks what speakers do.
Illocutionary act: The communicative action performed in saying something, such as promising, warning, or asserting. It names the central action speech act theory analyzes.
Explicit performative: A performative utterance that names its action with a verb, as in “I apologize.” Its verb makes the performed action overt.
How to Do Things with Words: J. L. Austin's posthumously published lectures on performative utterances and speech acts. This book develops the distinction between saying something and doing something by saying it.
Contract: A legally enforceable agreement that creates obligations between parties. Promises and acceptances can help constitute a contract through speech acts.
Semantic content: The meaning encoded by linguistic expressions, apart from many aspects of their use in context. Its distinction from performed action helps locate the boundary between semantics and speech acts.

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