john langshaw on locution, perlocution and iliocution?

Answer 1

Austin viewed speech as a more complex enterprise than a lot of physical activites. Especially because speech can have layers and layers of meaning. That is probably why he had to come up with a bunch of terms to describe what those layers were.

The important thing to remember in describing these terms is that none of them really apply to the listener or the speaker necessary. They are describing SPEECH, and what the speech is for. Still, I find it easiest to distinguish between them by their definitions of success.

A locution is just exactly what it is. It is successful if someone just hears it. "Pi is about 3.14" would be an example. There is no hidden content. If you know all the words in a locution, it is impossible to misunderstand it.

An illocution is a subtext meaning. Sometimes it's obvious, but sometimes not. It is successful of the recipient understand the implied layers, and they usually do. "I'm ten years old" could be an example, because it assumes that we're talking about Earth-years, and probably that the speaker doesn't mean EXACTLY ten. A more obscure illocution might be, "I like that," which doesn't even contain exactly what is liked. Illocutions sometimes need content for understanding.

A perlocution, on the other hand has to change the attitudes or cause activities in a listener to be successful. It could be as simple as "Get me that piece of paper" or far more complex such as "War is wrong" meaning 'vote for someone else for president'. For a perlocution, someone can understand perfectly and completely what you mean and want, but if the statement does not affect them in any way, the perlocution has failed.

As you can see, a statement can have ALL these qualities at once. It is not hard at all to convey information, imply content, and suggest action all at the same time. There are also speech acts that have NONE of those qualities - they are not meant to communicate at all!

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

It's John Langshaw Austin. These were the main terms in his theory of 'speech acts' - three kinds of thing we do in saying something.

Locution, what we say. E.g.,"I just saw a shark in the bay".

Illocution, what we intend by saying it. E.g., to warn someone not to enter the water.

Perlocution, the effect of what we say. E.g., persuade someone not to enter the water.