Thursday, September 29, 2011

Lingo: Locutionary, Illocutionary, and Perlocutionary Acts

John: "Darling, do you want to go out to the show tonight?"

Laura: "I'm feeling ill."

John: "That's ok. You stay there and I'll make soup."
Notice how Laura didn't respond to John's question by saying, "No, I don't want to go out to the show tonight." What she actually said — her locutionary act — was "I'm feeling ill."

An illocutionary act is what a person does in saying something else. Locution is speech. In-locution (in speaking) becomes il-locution through phonetic assimilation. In saying that she feels ill, Laura was telling John that she doesn't want go out.

Beyond communicating the state of her health and the answer to John's question, Laura accomplished one more thing through saying "I'm feeling ill." She got John to make her some soup. A perlocutionary act (per-locutionary, through speaking) is focused on the response others have to a speech act.

These terms from J.L. Austin's 1962 book How to Do Things with Words are used extensively in philosophical literature today. And in fiction, having a character who is deaf to the illocutionary force of language is always good comedy.
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16 comments:

  1. AcuariodiJuly 21, 2012 at 6:58 PM

    I got the idea, thanks so much.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Elyssa OzogSeptember 26, 2012 at 3:12 PM

    This example really helps.
    Thank you very much.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tilovalo MongoliaNovember 14, 2012 at 11:16 AM

    Thank you very much :) It really helps me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. melitaNovember 22, 2012 at 6:22 PM

    tx u for help me

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yoyok PriyoDecember 9, 2012 at 6:24 PM

    the door is open...
    how do you analyze it?

    ReplyDelete
  6. HarryDecember 17, 2012 at 9:51 PM

    I want to add sth. By saying "I'm feeling ill" in the example, doesn't necessary mean that Laura wants John to make her soup, because it is supposed that perlocutionary act is WHAT we want to cause in the listener by saying sth, and in the example she doesn't show she wants to obtain that.

    ReplyDelete
  7. GarrenDecember 20, 2012 at 12:44 AM

    I think you're describing a perlocutionary intention, not a perlocutionary act. I understood Austin to be saying a perlocutionary act is a result which could have been intended or not.

    ReplyDelete
  8. PutriJune 5, 2013 at 9:05 PM

    it means that "close the door please..."

    ReplyDelete
  9. MathildeSeptember 18, 2013 at 9:37 AM

    Great example!! I finally understood this shit

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hamidah MarzukiDecember 6, 2013 at 1:48 AM

    thanks for the info...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Amine KjFebruary 23, 2014 at 1:06 PM

    so great, thank u

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ilham Ahmad SetiawanMarch 30, 2014 at 11:46 PM

    very good example,... thank u very much

    ReplyDelete
  13. Rauph EkaMay 12, 2014 at 6:05 AM

    Thanks for the information. it'll help me in finishing work on discourse analysis.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Mattias OrreJune 26, 2014 at 11:43 AM

    Ill never understand what the *@!!# perlocutionary means. Im beginning to think it doesnt exist.

    ReplyDelete
  15. IrynaSeptember 9, 2014 at 5:06 AM

    Now it makes sense :) Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Joseph KimOctober 25, 2014 at 8:40 PM

    Eureka! Thank you a million!

    ReplyDelete

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