Cover not available

In:Handbook of Pragmatics: 28th Annual Installment
Edited by Jana Declercq, Frank Brisard, Sigurd D’hondt and Mieke Vandenbroucke
[Handbook of Pragmatics 28] 2025
► pp. 143–161

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Speech act theory

 | University of Trieste
Published online: 18 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hop.28.spe1
Article outline
  • 1.Where does speech act theory come from?
    • 1.1Frege and the assertion sign
    • 1.2Wittgenstein and the uses of language
    • 1.3Austin and the performative utterance
    • 1.4Grice and speaker meaning
  • 2.Utterances as acts
    • 2.1Austin’s distinction of locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts
      • 2.1.1The complexities of saying
      • 2.1.2The three kinds of effects of the illocutionary act
      • 2.1.3The distinction between illocution and perlocution
    • 2.2Searle’s notion of the speech act as illocutionary act
      • 2.2.1Illocutionary force and propositional content
      • 2.2.2Felicity conditions as rules
      • 2.2.3Perlocution
  • 3.Main problems in speech act theory
    • 3.1Illocutionary force-indicating devices
    • 3.2The classification of illocutionary acts
    • 3.3Modes of understanding
    • 3.4Speech acts and truth
    • 3.5Universality vs. the linguistic and cultural relativity of speech acts
  • 4.Trends of development in speech act theory
    • 4.1From the conventionality of performatives to the naturalness of inferences
    • 4.2From interpersonal action to intentional states in the speaker’s mind
    • 4.3Non-mainstream perspectives and collateral endeavors
  • 5.Open issues and ways of further development
  • References
References (102)
References
Alston, William P. 2000. Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Apel, Karl-Otto. 1991. “Is intentionality more basic than linguistic meaning?” In John Searle and His Critics, ed. by Ernest Lepore and Robert Van Gulick, 31–55. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asher, Nicholas M., and Alex Lascarides. 2001. “Indirect speech acts.” Synthese 128: 183–228. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Austin, John L. 1946. “Other Minds.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Suppl. vol. 20. [Reprinted in Austin (1979), 76–116.]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Austin, J. L. 1975. How to Do Things with Words. 2nd revised edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [1st edition 1962.] Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1979. Philosophical Papers. 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [1st edition 1961.] Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bach, Kent, and Robert M. Harnish. 1979. Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ballmer, Thomas T., and Waltraud Brennenstuhl. 1981. Speech Act Classification: A Study in the Lexical Analysis of English Speech Activity Verbs. Berlin: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bazzanella, Carla, Claudia Caffi, and Marina Sbisà. 1991. “Scalar dimensions of illocutionary force.” In Speech Acts: Fiction or Reality?, ed. by Igor Ž. Žagar, 63–76. Ljubljana: IPrA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benveniste, Émile. 1966. Problèmes de linguistique générale [Problems of general linguistics]. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana, Juliane House, and Gabriele Kasper. 1989. “Investigating cross-cultural pragmatics.” In Cross-cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies, 1–34. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana, Juliane House and Gabriele Kasper (eds.). 1989. Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen C. Levinson. 1978. “Universals in language usage.” In Questions and Politeness, ed. by Esther N. Goody, 56–289. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1987. Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bühler, Karl. 1934. Sprachtheorie [Theory of language]. Jena: Fischer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caffi, Claudia. 1999. “On mitigation.” Journal of Pragmatics 31: 881–909. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caponetto, Laura. 2021. “A comprehensive definition of illocutionary silencing.” Topoi 40: 191–202. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caponetto, Laura, and Paolo Labinaz (eds). 2023. Sbisà on Speech as Action. Cham: Palgrave. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cappelen, Herman, and Ernest Lepore. 2005. Insensitive Semantics: A Defense of Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carston, Robyn. 2002. Thoughts and Utterances: The Pragmatics of Explicit Communication. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cohen, Philip R., Jerry L. Morgan and Martha E. Pollack (eds). 1990. Intentions in Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, William. 1994. “Speech act classification, language typology and cognition.” In Foundations of Speech Act Theory: Philosophical and Linguistic Perspectives, ed. by Savas L. Tsohatzidis, 460–477. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davidson, Donald. 1979. “Moods and performances.” In Meaning and Use, ed. by Avishai Margalit, 9–20. Dordrecht: Reidel. [Reprinted in Donald Davidson, Truth and Interpretation, 109–121. Oxford: Oxford University Press.] Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duranti, Alessandro. 1988. “Intention, language and social action in a Samoan context.” Journal of Pragmatics 12: 13–33. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Eemeren, Frans H., and Rob Grootendorst. 2004. A Systematic Theory of Argumentation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frege, Gottlob. 1879. Begriffsschrift [Concept writing]. Halle: Nebert.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1918. “Der Gedanke: Eine logische Untersuchung” [Thought: A logical inquiry]. Beiträge zur Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus 1: 58–77.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gazdar, Gerald. 1979. Pragmatics. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1981. “Speech act assignment.” In Elements of Discourse Understanding, ed. by Aravind K. Joshi, Bonne L. Webber and Ivan A. Sag, 64–83. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geis, Michael L. 1995. Speech Acts and Conversational Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Green, Mitchell S. 2000. “Illocutionary force and semantic content.” Linguistics & Philosophy 23: 435–473. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007. Self-Expression. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2023. “On the genealogy and potential abuse of assertoric norms.” Topoi 42: 357–368. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, H. Paul. 1957. “Meaning.” The Philosophical Review 66: 377–388. [Reprinted in H. Paul Grice, Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1989.] Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1975. “Logic and conversation.” In Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts, ed. by Peter Cole and Jerry L. Morgan, 41–58. New York: Academic Press. [Reprinted in H. Paul Grice, Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1989.] Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1981. Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns [Theory of communicative action]. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holmes, Janet. 1984. “Modifying illocutionary force.” Journal of Pragmatics 8: 345–365. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hornsby, Jennifer, and Rae Langton. 1998. “Free speech and illocution.” Legal Theory 4: 21–37. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Katriel, Tamar, and Marcelo Dascal. 1989. “Speaker’s commitment and involvement in discourse.” In From Sign to Text, ed. by Yishai Tobin, 275–295. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kibble, Rodger. 2013. “Speech act theory and intelligent software agents.” In Pragmatics of Speech Actions, ed. by Marina Sbisà and Ken Turner, 313–338. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kissine, Mikhail. 2013. From Utterances to Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kukla, Rebecca. 2014. “Performative force, convention, and discursive injustice.” Hypatia 29: 440–457. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langton, Rae. 1993. “Speech acts and unspeakable acts.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 22: 293–330.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. “The authority of hate speech.” In Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Law Volume 3, ed. by John Gardner, Leslie Green and Brian Leiter, 123–152. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey N. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lepore, Ernest, and Matthew Stone. 2015. Imagination and Convention. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2017. “Speech Acts.” In The Oxford Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by Yan Huang, 226–243. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewiński, Marcin, Bianca Cepollaro, Steve Oswald and Maciej Witek (eds). 2023. “Norms of public argument: A speech act perspective.” Topoi 42: 349–541. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewis, David. 1979. “Scorekeeping in a language game.” Journal of Philosophical Logic 8: 339–359. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lyons, John. 1977. Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MacKinnon, Catharine. 1987. Feminism Unmodified. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McDonald, Lucy. 2021. “Your word against mine: The power of uptake.” Synthese 199: 3505–3526. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2022. “Reimagining illocutionary force.” The Philosophical Quarterly 72: 918–939. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McGowan, Mary-Kate. 2003. “Conversational exercitives and the force of pornography.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 31: 155–189. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. “On multiple types of silencing.” In Beyond Speech: Pornography and Analytic Feminist Philosophy, ed. by Mari Mikkola, 39–58. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. Just Words: On Speech and Hidden Harm. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mikkola, Mari. 2019. Pornography: A Philosophical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pratt, Mary Louise. 1977. Toward a Speech Act Theory of Literary Discourse. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Recanati, François. 1981. Les énoncés performatifs [Performative utterances]. Paris: Minuit.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Literal Meaning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosaldo, Michelle Z. 1982. “The things we do with words : Ilongot speech acts and speech act theory in philosophy.” Language in Society 11: 203–237. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ross, John R. 1970. “On declarative sentences.” In Readings in English Transformational Grammar, ed. by Roderick A. Jakobs and Peter S. Rosenbaum, 222–272. Waltham, MA: Ginn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sbisà, Marina. 1984. “On illocutionary types.” Journal of Pragmatics 8: 93–112. [Reprinted in Sbisà 2023.] Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. “Illocutionary force and degrees of strength in language use.” Journal of Pragmatics 33: 1791–1814. [Reprinted in Sbisà 2023.] Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. “Cognition and narrativity in speech act sequences.” In Rethinking Sequentiality, ed. by Anita Fetzer and Christiane Meierkord, 71–98. Amsterdam: John Benjamins [Reprinted in Sbisà 2023.] Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. “Communicating citizenship in verbal interaction: Principles of a speech act oriented discourse analysis.” In Analysing Citizenship Talk, ed. by Heiko Hausendorf and Alfons Bora, 151–180. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “Variety of speech act norms.” In Normativity and Variety of Speech Actions, ed. by Maciej Witek and Iwona Witczak-Plisiecka, 23–50. Leiden: Brill. [Reprinted in Sbisà 2023.]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. “Illocuzione e dislivelli di potere” [Illocution and power imbalance]. In Rae Langton, Linguaggio d’odio e autorità [Hate speech and authority], ed. by Claudia Bianchi and Laura Caponetto, 63–86. Milan–Udine: Mimesis. [English translation in Sbisà 2023.]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. “(Im)politeness and the human subject.” In The Philosophy of (Im)politeness, ed. by Chaoqun Xie, 157–77. Cham: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2023. Essays on Speech Acts and Other Topics in Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2024. Austinian Themes: Illocution, Action, Knowledge, Truth, and Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel. 1984. On some questions and ambiguities in conversation. In: J. Maxwell Atkinson and John Heritage (eds.), Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, 28–52. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Searle, John R. 1964. “What is a speech act?” In Philosophy in America, ed. by Max Black, 120–136. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1968. “Austin on locutionary and illocutionary acts.” The Philosophical Review 77: 405–424. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1969. Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1975. “Indirect speech acts.” In Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts, ed. by Peter Cole and Jerry L. Morgan: 59–82. [Reprinted in Searle 1979.] Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1976. “A classification of illocutionary acts.” Language in Society 5: 1–23. [Reprinted in Searle 1979.] Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1979. Expression and Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1983. Intentionality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1989. “How performatives work.” Linguistics & Philosophy 12: 535–558. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Searle, John R., and Daniel Vanderveken. 1985. Foundations of Illocutionary Logic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson. 1986. Relevance. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Strawson, Peter F. 1950. “On referring.” Mind 59: 320–344. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1964. “Intention and convention in speech acts.” The Philosophical Review 73: 439–460. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1973. “Austin and ‘locutionary meaning’.” In Essays on J. L. Austin, ed. by Isaiah Berlin, L. W. Forguson, David F. Pears, George Pitcher, John R. Searle, Peter F. Strawson and Geoffrey J. Warnock, 46–68. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Travis, Charles. 2000. Unshadowed Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vendler, Zeno. 1972. Res Cogitans. Ithaka, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Verschueren, Jef. 1983. Review of Speech Act Classification: A Study in the Lexical Analysis of English Speech Activity Verbs by Thomas Ballmer and Waltraud Brennenstuhl. Language 59: 166–175. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1985. What People Say They Do with Words. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1989. “Language on language: Toward metapragmatic universals.” Papers in Pragmatics 3: 1–144.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Warnock, Geoffrey J. 1973. “Some types of performative utterances.” In Essays on J. L. Austin, ed. by Isaiah Berlin, L. W. Forguson, David F. Pears, George Pitcher, John R. Searle, Peter F. Strawson and Geoffrey J. Warnock, 69–89. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weigand, Edda. 1994. “Discourse, conversation, dialogue.” In Concepts of Dialogue, ed. by Edda Weigand, 49–75. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, Anna. 1991. Cross-Cultural Pragmatics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Witek, Maciej. 2015. “An interactional account of illocutionary practice.” Language Sciences 47: 43–55. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “Coordination and norms in illocutionary interaction.” In Normativity and Variety of Speech Actions, ed. by Maciej Witek and Iwona Witczak-Plisiecka, 66–97. Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1922. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1953. Philosophische Untersuchungen/Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1958. The Blue and Brown Books. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1969. Über Gewissheit/On Certainty. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wunderlich, Dieter. 1976. Studien zur Sprechakttheorie [Studies in Speech Act Theory]. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zaefferer, Dietmar. 2001. “Deconstructing a classical classification: A typological look at Searle’s concept of illocution type.” Revue internationale de philosophie 55: 209–225. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue