Illocutionary Acts And Sentence Meaning Access

Alston’s central thesis is that for a sentence to have a particular meaning is for it to be to perform illocutionary acts of a matching type.

Utterances that express a psychological state, such as apologizing or congratulating.

Acts that commit the speaker to future action, like promising or vowing. Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning

Attempts to get the listener to do something, such as requesting or commanding.

Alston expands on the work of J.L. Austin and John Searle, categorizing illocutionary acts into five primary types: Alston’s central thesis is that for a sentence

Alston explains the performance of these acts through the concept of "taking responsibility" (

'ing). When a speaker utters a sentence, they take responsibility for certain conditions being true (e.g., in a request to open a window, the speaker is responsible for the condition that the window is actually closed). Taxonomy of Speech Acts Attempts to get the listener to do something,

Acts that bring about a change in status or state simply by being uttered, such as marrying a couple or adjourning a meeting. Key Components of a Speech Act