illocution

This is most serious during the discussion of locution and illocution.

In this case the illocution of the sniff may easily be formulated as 'I can smell gas!

Speech act theory assumes that there is one neat, verbally expressible illocution to each locution.

Step 8: Use background information to establish the primary illocution (Searle 184).

Petrey seems to equate locution with semantics and illocution with pragmatics, but does not say so explicitly.

Notice that if one successfully performs a perlocution, one also succeeds in performing both an illocution and a locution.

"Free Speech and Illocution," (with Rae Langton) Legal Theory 4 (1998): 21-37.

"Illocution and its Significance," in Foundations of Speech Act Theory: Philosophical and Linguistic Perspectives, ed.

"Hate Speech, Illocution, and Social Context: A Critique of Judith Butler," Journal of Social Philosophy, Vol.

In speech act terms, the difference is that Austin focuses on illocution ( "language in society" p.139) while the deconstructionists focus on locution ( "language in itself" p.139).

The formal literal meaning of the words is the locution ; the act which is performed by saying it the illocution ; a third layer is the perlocution or overall aim of the discourse.

Instructive rules constitute reality: if one person utters the locution 'country X has moral superiority in world affairs', another person accepts it (illocution), and many other people act accordingly (perlocution), reality will have been constituted by this speech act.