Beginning with performative utterances, this entry explains felicity conditions, effects on hearers, and the role of authority and social norms.
1.Speech does more than report
In an appropriate setting, saying ‘I apologize’ performs an apology. Austin distinguishes what an utterance says, what act it performs, and what effects it has. Success depends not only on truth but on roles, procedures, intentions, and circumstances.
2.Who may change reality with words?
The same declaration—‘the meeting is adjourned’—has different consequences when spoken by a chair or a passerby. Linguistic force draws on convention and social position. Critical theory asks whether systematic failures to be heard are themselves political structures.
3.Major Positions
Conventionalism
Speech acts depend on shared procedures, roles, and felicity conditions.
Intentionalism
Recognizing a speaker’s communicative intention is central to illocutionary force.
Social norm view
The efficacy of speech is embedded in wider structures of power, identity, and norms.
4.Primary & Further Reading
- Austin, J. L., 1962, How to Do Things with Words.
- Searle, John, 1969, Speech Acts.
- Butler, Judith, 1997, Excitable Speech.
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Speech Acts”. ↗
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