|
|
Article: Speech Act Theory
- Article from:
- International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Thomson Gale. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Speech Act Theory
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Although the reflection on the performative dimension of language can arguably be traced back to the Sophists (Corax of Syracuse, Tisias, Gorgias, Protagoras, and Isocrates) of the fifth century BCE and their (lost) treatises on rhetoric and argumentation, it is John L. Austin (1911
–
1960) who usually is credited with being the first philosopher to systematically address this question. In his postmortem book titled
How to Do Things with Words
(1975), Austin showed that language can be used not only to
describe
states of affairs (as in
This kitchen is very clean
), but also to
do
things (in this case,
to note
that this kitchen is very clean). More ...