What is an illocutionary act?

Definition
	An illocutionary act is a complete speech act, made in a typical utterance, that consists of
	the delivery of the propositional content of the utterance (including references and a predicate), and a particular illocutionary force, whereby the speaker asserts suggests demands promises, or vows.

Kinds
	Here are some kinds of illocutionary acts:
	What is a command? What is a complex illocutionary act? What is a defective illocutionary act? What is a direct illocution? What is an elementary illocutionary act? What is an exclamation? What is indirect illocution? What is a nondefective illocutionary act? What is a question? What is a statement?

Generic
	An illocutionary act is a kind of
	What is a speech act?

See also
	What is commitment between illocutionary acts? What is illocutionary consistency? What is illocutionary inconsistency?

Source
	Searle and Vanderveken 1985 1–2

Context for this page:

Concept module: illocutionary act
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): I
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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