Illocutionary act

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Illocutionary act (also illocutionary speech act , illocution or illocutionary act ) is a technical term in linguistic pragmatics . It denotes the action performed through language. It is a Germanization of the English made-up words illocution or illocutionary act (meaning 'act performed in speaking', from Latin locūtiō ' to speak' to loqui = ' to speak'), which John Langshaw Austin introduced in his speech act theory and which "the execution to denote an action with the help of a linguistic utterance ”.

Illocation at Searle

John Searle distinguishes the following five subspecies:

  • assertive (assurance, with varying degrees of certainty). Its purpose is to communicate a belief; Examples: determine, confirm, dispute, explain, describe.
  • directive . With them the speaker tries to get the listener to do something; a desire is thus communicated. Examples: ask, command, ask, implore.
  • commissive (obligation). The speaker undertakes to do something (voluntarily) in the future; so it expresses an intention. Examples: swear, promise, threaten, guarantee.
  • expressive (emotional expression). Here the speech act is an end in itself. Examples: thank, congratulate, welcome, excuse, express condolences.
  • declaration . Something is the case because the speaker says it is the case. Examples: opening a meeting (by saying “The meeting has opened”), marrying a couple (by saying “I hereby declare you to be husband and wife”), accolade , declaration of war .

Differentiation from the locutive, perlocutive and propositional act

The illocutionary act is an “aspect”, a “partial act”, “function”, “component”, “purpose” or “specific role” of the speech act , the “purpose of an utterance”. In speech act theory it is differentiated from the aspects of locution (locutive act) and perlocution (perlocutive act) and, in Searle's case, also from proposition . The theory of the illocutionary act is considered to be the “ core point of Searle's speech act theory ”, at the center of which it stands accordingly.

The central idea of ​​the concept of illocution is that with a locutive act, an illocutive act is performed at the same time. In addition to the meaning that belongs to the locutive act, a specific illocutionary force (also: illocutionary role; communicative force; English illocutionary force ) can be identified. This “generalizes” the “assertive force” of Gottlob Frege . While Austin in statements and allegations etc. if only a locutionary and not yet an illocutionary act assumed, since Searle an illocutionary act has also been seen in these acts of expression. For Searle, the “illocutionary act […] is the smallest complete unit of linguistic communication between humans” or, in “communication, the smallest unit of meaning”.

The illocutive power of an act of utterance can be expressly stated by the speaker in the utterance itself

Example: I am answering you: ...

however, it can also be exercised indirectly

Example: The window closes for Mach .

Propositional salary

In addition to the act of expression and the illocutive act as an aspect of a speech act, Searle also analyzes the propositional act :

According to him, a distinction must be made between “the content that the act has and the type of act to which it belongs”. "This distinction corresponds exactly to the distinction ... between the propositional content that an intentional state has and the type of state to which it belongs": A distinction must be made between the "content of an illocutionary act and its act type". The content of an illocutionary act is its “propositional content”. In the speech act, therefore, what constitutes the “illocutionary type or its illocutionary role” can be separated from “its propositional content”. Searle symbolizes the structure of an illocutionary act accordingly with R (p).

literature

  • John Langshaw Austin: On the theory of speech acts . Stuttgart 1972 a. ö. ISBN 3-15-009396-1 .
    • Original: How to Do Things with Words . Cambridge (Mass.) 1962 a. ö.
  • Winfried Nöth : Handbook of Semiotics . 2nd, completely revised and enlarged edition. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2000, ISBN 3-476-01226-3
  • Friedrich Christoph Doerge: Illocutionary Acts - Austin's Account and What Searle Made Out of It . Tuebingen 2006. [1]

Web links

Wiktionary: Illocutionary act  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Regenbogen / Meyer (Ed.): Dictionary of philosophical terms. Meiner, Hamburg 2005: illocutionary act.
  2. Glück, Helmut (ed.): Metzler Lexikon Sprach. 4th edition. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2010: Illocution, illocutionary act, illocutionary act.
  3. ^ Klaus-Michael Bogdal : BA course in German studies: a textbook. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2008, p. 141.
  4. Father: Reference Linguistics. 2005, p. 15.
  5. ^ Tugendhat / Wolf: Logisch-semantische Propädeutik (1983), p. 213.
  6. ^ Bogdal, Michael: BA course in German studies: a textbook. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2008, p. 141.
  7. John R. Searle: Spirit, Language and Society. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 163.
  8. John R. Searle: Spirit, Language and Society. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 164.
  9. See Helmut Glück (Ed.): Metzler Lexikon Sprach. 4th edition. Stuttgart / Weimar 2010: Illocution, illocutionary act, illocutionary act.
  10. John R. Searle: Spirit, Language and Society. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 164.
  11. John R. Searle: Spirit, Language and Society. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 165.
  12. See John R. Searle: Spirit, Language and Society. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 165.