M. A. I english P. C3 & C6 Modern Linguistics title pmd

2. 
The Speech Act Theory 
While expressing themselves, people not only produce utterances containing 
grammatical structures and words, but also perform actions via those utterances. A 
statement by a judge “I sentence you to five years imprisonment” is not a mere 
string of words. It has the effect as if the judge has put the accused person in the 
prison and locked him up.Thus, a number of utterances behave somewhat like 
actions. It can be said that all utterances are acts of some type.An act can be 

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defined as something done in order to bring about a desired change in the state. 
This is the basic tenet of the Speech Act Theory. An act performed via speech is 
called ‘Speech Act’. It is an utterance which has an implied intention and an 
expected effect/outcome. It was in this context that John Langshaw Austinstated 
that ‘speaking is doing’; that speech is deployed to get things done, to achieve 
specific communicative goals. 
2.1 
 Austin’s Contribution to the Speech Act Theory
Austin introduced the Speech Act Theory in his William James lectures at 
Harvard University in 1955. The ideas were later published posthumously in his 
book How to Do Things with Words (1962). The Speech Act Theory developed 
against the philosophy of Logical Positivism.The lectures were a protest against the 
age-old assumption that the function of a Declarative sentence was merely to 
describe, report or state something. It also countered earlier propositions insisting 
that a statement made by a Declarative sentence could be proved to be either true 
or false. He noted that some ordinary language declarative sentences, contrary to 
logical positivist assumptions, are not apparently used with any intention of making 
true or false statements, but rather that the uttering of the sentences is, or is part of. 
For Example: 
(a) 
“I name this ship Queen Elizabeth”. 
(b) 
“I bet you six pence it will rain tomorrow”. 
(c) 
“I declare war on Zanzibar”. 
By uttering such sentences the speaker actually ‘names the ship’ or ‘makes 
a bet’ or ‘declares war’.
The Speech Act Theory thus proposes that we do things using words i.e. 
speakers perform actions via utterances; that utterances ‘bring about changes in the 
state of affairs’. Austin defines a ‘Speech Act’ as “the act of uttering a certain 
sentence in a given context for a determined purpose, i.e. an act of communication”. 
Thus, a speaker can perform numerous acts such as stating a fact or opinion, 

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confirming or denying something, making a prediction, a promise, a request, an 
offer, thanks or an invitation, issuing an order, giving advice or permission, 
christening a child, swearing an oath, etc.
According to Austin saying anything consists of: 
1. 
Performing the act of uttering certain noises (a phonetic act) and the 
utterance is a Phone. 
2. 
Performing the act of uttering certain vocables or words, that is, noises of 
certain types belonging to a certain vocabulary in a certain construction, 
conforming to a certain grammar, with a certain intonation. He calls it a 
‘phatic’ act, and the utterance as a ‘Pheme’. 
3. 
Performing the act of using that pheme or its constituents with a certain more 
or less definite ‘sense’ and ‘reference’ (which both equal to ‘meaning’). He 
calls this act as a ‘rhetic’ act and the utterance as a ‘Rheme’.
Some other definitions of Speech Acts are as follows:
a. 
Speaking a language is performing speech acts, acts as making statements 
giving commands, asking questions, making promises and so on…(Searle 
1969:16) 
b. 
Speech acts are actions performed via utterances. (Yule G. 1996:47)
c. 
Utterances are speech acts.(Thorat A. 2002:25) 
d. 
Speech Act Theory says that language is used not only to describe things 
but to do things as well. (Kempson, 2001-433) 
e. 
Every utterance performs a Speech Act of some kind although this may not 
be obvious from the surface structure of the sentences concerned. (Flower-
1981:4)
f. 
It is a theory of saying as doing within the framework of social institutions 
and conversations. (Lyons, 1981:175). 

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Speech Acts are both culture specific and universal that is some Speech 
Acts differ in their expression in different cultures. However, some are commonly 
expressed in the same way. The Speech Act of blessing, greeting, thanking, 
complimenting etc. are culture specific, whereas making statements, asking 
questions and giving orders are universal. Any study of language is complete only if 
it takes into consideration its actual use in communication.