Frederik Droste

Locution, Illocution, and Perlocution Frederik Droste

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, printed single-sided, grade: 1,3, University of Vechta, course: Pragmatics: Language in Context, language: English, abstract: The following seminar paper deals with John L. Austin's "How to Do Things with Words" and the established speech act theory in it. First, since Austin is the originator of the three-part division 'locution, illocution, and perlocution', his life and lectures will be shortly reflected. Because of the fact that the introduced perlocution is based on the illocution and locution, I will start analyzing the latter in order to maintain this stream of logic. Furthermore, problems this approach brings along will be explained and several everyday-life examples will support the arguments. In conclusion, the influence of Austin's speech act theory will be evaluated.