illocutionary etymology

Etymology

The term "illocutionary" is derived from the Latin words:

• "illudere" (to mock, to make sport of)
• "locutio" (speech, utterance)

Meaning

In linguistics, illocutionary refers to the communicative intention or purpose conveyed by an utterance, as opposed to its literal meaning (locutionary act) or its effect on the hearer (perlocutionary act).

Origin

The concept of illocutionary acts was first proposed by the British philosopher John Langshaw Austin in his 1955 work "How to Do Things with Words." Austin argued that uttering a sentence is not merely an act of representing a proposition, but also an action that can perform a variety of social acts, such as commanding, apologizing, or promising.

Austin identified three types of speech acts:

• Locutionary acts: The act of producing a meaningful utterance.
• Illocutionary acts: The communicative intention behind an utterance.
• Perlocutionary acts: The consequences or effects of an utterance on the hearer.

Illocutionary acts are typically classified into several categories, such as:

• Assertives: Statements that assert something as true or false.
• Directives: Utterances that attempt to influence the hearer's behavior.
• Commissives: Utterances that commit the speaker to a future course of action.
• Expressives: Utterances that express the speaker's feelings or attitudes.
• Declarations: Utterances that create or change a social state of affairs.

The study of illocutionary acts is an important part of pragmatics, the branch of linguistics that studies how language is used in social contexts.

illocutionary relate terms

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• locution

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• conundrum

  Etymology The word conundrum is derived from the Latin phrase conundrāre meaning t

• scepter

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