Classifying illocutionary acts, or, a tale of Theory and Praxis

I became interested in the problem of the classification of illocutionary acts in the framework of my uneasiness about the Fact-Value and Theory-Praxis dichotomies. In my decades-long research on it, I defended Austin’s classification and reformulated it, applying my reformulation fruitfully to various discourse genres as well as to the analysis of conversation. I introduced original perspectives as to the relationship between action and linguistic form in illocution and as to the role of performative verbs, but gradually lost sight of my initial interest in the Fact-Value and Theory-Praxis dichotomies. I summarize those results of my research which can help to bridge these dichotomies and indicate the next steps to be taken in this direction.