On Searle's Speech Act And Reference Theory

Long long ago, either logicians or philosophers began interested in language. People express their thought, feelings etc with language. But why does language have these functions? What secret things does language have on earth? Being a language philosopher, John Roger Searle made research into it, and produced his act theory. At the same time, on the basis of his speech act theory, Searle explored reference, which is the important philosophical problem. And he put forward his distinctive opinions. All these have made great contributions to the development of language philosophy.This paper consists of four parts.The first part expounds Searle's speech act theory and contrast his opinion with the senior's, then point out the differences.Part two aims to elaborate Searle' reference theory. This part includes four portions. First, Searle's discussion on the notion of reference; Second, Searle's three principles on reference ; Third, his criticism on Russell's description theory and fourthly ,his theory on proper names.Part three makes an analysis and valuation of Searle's speech act and reference theory respectively.Part four makes a whole estimation of Searle's speech act and reference theory.