In linguistics, an utterance defined in terms of a speaker's intention and the effect it has on a listener.

Speech act theory, as introduced by Oxford philosopher J.L. Austin (How to Do Things With Words,
1962) and further developed by American philosopher J.R. Searle, considers the types of acts that
utterances can be said to perform:

 Locutionary Acts
 Illocutionary Acts
 Perlocutionary Acts


 J. L. Austin, How to Do Things With Words, 2nd ed., edited by J. O. Urmson and Marina Sbisà (Harvard University Press, 1975)

Term introduced by the British linguistic philosopher John L. Austin in How to Do Things With Words
(1962)

Examples and Observations:

 Kenneth Parcell: I'm sorry, Mr. Jordan. I'm just overworked. With my page duties and being Mr.
Donaghy's assistant, there's not enough hours in the day.
Tracy Jordan: I'm sorry about that. But just let me know if there's any way I can help.
Kenneth: Actually, there is one thing. . . .
Tracy: No! I was just saying that! Why can't you read human facial cues?
(Matthew Hubbard, "Cutbacks," 30 Rock, April 9, 2009)

 "Achieving pragmatic competence involves the ability to understand the illocutionary force of an
utterance, that is, what a speaker intends by making it. This is particularly important in cross-
cultural encounters since the same form (e.g. 'When are you leaving?') can vary in its illocutionary
force depending on the context in which it is made (e.g. 'May I have a ride with you?' or 'Don't you
think it is time for you to go?')."
(Sandra Lee McKay, Teaching English as an International Language. Oxford Univ. Press, 2002)

 "When I say 'how are you' to a co-worker, I really mean hello. Although I know what I mean by
'how are you,' it is possible that the receiver does not know that I mean hello and actually proceeds
to give me a fifteen minute discourse on his various maladies."
(George Ritzer, Sociology: A Multiple Paradigm Science. Allyn & Bacon, 1980)
Also Known As: illocutionary function

 "Intuitively, a perlocutionary act is an act performed by saying something, and not in saying
something. Persuading, angering, inciting, comforting and inspiring are often perlocutionary
acts; but they would never begin an answer to the question 'What did he say?' Perlocutionary
acts, in contrast with locutionary and illocutionary acts, which are governed by conventions,
are not conventional but natural acts (Austin (1955), p. 121). Persuading, angering, inciting,
etc. cause physiological changes in the audience, either in their states or behavior;
conventional acts do not."
(Aloysius Martinich, Communication and Reference. Walter de Gruyter, 1984)
 "In the perlocutionary instance, an act is perfomed by saying something. For example, if
someone shouts 'fire' and by that act causes people to exit a building which they believe to be
on fire, they have performed the perlocutionary act of convincing other people to exit the
building. . . . In another example, if a jury foreperson declares 'guilty' in a courtroom in which
an accused person sits, the illocutionary act of declaring a person guilty of a crime has been
undertaken. The perlocutionary act related to that illocution is that, in reasonable
circumstances, the accused person would be convinced that they were to be led from the
courtroom into a jail cell. Perlocutionary acts are acts intrinsically related to the illocutionary
act which precedes them, but discrete and able to be differentiated from the illocutionary act."
(Katharine Gelber, Speaking Back: The Free Speech Versus Hate Speech Debate. John
Benjamins, 2002)

Also Known As: perlocutionary act, perlocutionary effect