Speech Acts and Illocutionary Acts

This entry discusses speech acts and illocutionary acts in the light of the different theoretical frameworks in which they have been explored from the second postwar period onward, thus distinguishing a proper pragmatic approach (either conventionality based, as in Austin 1975, or intention based, as in Searle 1969; 1976), a sociocultural approach (exemplified by Wierzbicka 1985), and a set of formal approaches at the syntax-pragmatics interface (essentially started by the pioneering contribution of Ross 1970 and consistently developed over the 2000s and the 2010s). Each model is first concisely outlined and relativized according to its reach and impact on Slavic linguistics schools; individual cases of their application with respect to data collected from various Slavic languages are then discussed. (For a comprehensive history of speech act theories, see Allan 2014: 164–280; Levinson 2003: 226–283; Padučeva 2010: 19–47; Sbisà 2009; Seuren 2009: 133–179, among others. For a comprehensive account of various extralinguistic transpositions that the notion of “speech act” has undergone over the years, especially in philosophy, social sciences, and political sciences, see Loxley 2007.)