On Austin’s Theory Of Speech Act

The main contribution of Austin to philosophy of language is his theory of speech act.Moore’s thoughts of natural language and common sense and Wittgenstein’s thoughts oflanguage games are the main sources of Austin’s theory of speech act. Austin’s theory ofspeech act includes the concept of performative utterance and tripartite models of speech act.In the case of following some conditions and rules, if you make an performative utterance,you will perform certain actions. Otherwise, you will make the mistake of the infelicities.Tripartite models of speech act is the most important content of Austin’s theory of speech act,and it includes the locutionary acts, the illocutionary acts and the perlocutionary acts. Theillocutionary acts is the most important part. Austin’s theory of speech act has a far-reachinginfluence: it promotes the development of ordinary language school; and it has a significantinfluence on Searle’s philosophy of language and philosophy of mind.