Speech Act Theory
Abstract
Speech act theory has been foundational in establishing pragmatics as an independent field of inquiry; yet, recent pragmatic research appears to have drifted away from the theoretical investigation of speech acts. This Element explores the reasons why this is so, focusing on the difference of perspective that emerges when the scope of the discipline is viewed through a narrow versus a broad lens. Following an overview of the initial exposition of speech act theory by Austin, it tracks its evolution, through subsequent Searlean and Gricean elaborations, to the currently received view. This view is then found to have diverged substantially from Austin's original vision, largely due to its alignment with the narrow conception of pragmatics. Against this backdrop, it is suggested that embracing the broad take on the discipline can allow for a reintegration of Austin's vision into the way we theorise about speech acts.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Cites
Grice, H. P. (1975) · Speech Acts · doi:10.1163/9789004368811_003 · Cited by 23,221 · see citing works
Austin, J. L. (1975) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198245537.001.0001 · Cited by 21,496 · see citing works
Searle, J. R. (1969) · doi:10.1017/cbo9781139173438 · Cited by 11,718 · see citing works
A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., & Jefferson, G. (1974) · Language · doi:10.2307/412243 · Cited by 11,350 · see citing works
Leech, G. (2016) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315835976 · Cited by 7,406 · see citing works
Levinson, S. C. (1983) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511813313 · Cited by 5,137 · see citing works
Intentionality: An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind
Searle, J. R. (1983) · doi:10.1017/cbo9781139173452 · Cited by 4,575 · see citing works
Grice, H. P. (1957) · The Philosophical Review · doi:10.2307/2182440 · Cited by 2,824 · see citing works
The Semantic Conception of Truth: and the Foundations of Semantics
Tarski, A. (1944) · Philosophy and Phenomenological Research · doi:10.2307/2102968 · Cited by 1,643 · see citing works
Carston, R. (2002) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9780470754603 · Cited by 1,267 · see citing works
Speech Acts in Argumentative Discussions
van Eemeren, F. H., & Grootendorst, R. (1984) · Mouton eBooks · doi:10.1515/9783110846089 · Cited by 1,151 · see citing works
Levinson, S. C. (1979) · Linguistics · doi:10.1515/ling.1979.17.5-6.365 · Cited by 1,111 · see citing works
Davidson, D. (1967) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/bf00485035 · Cited by 984 · see citing works
Intention and Convention in Speech Acts
Strawson, P. F. (1964) · The Philosophical Review · doi:10.2307/2183301 · Cited by 972 · see citing works
Horn, L. R., & Ward, G. L. (2005) · doi:10.1002/9780470756959 · Cited by 949
Text and Context: Explorations in the Semantics and Pragmatics of Discourse
van Dijk, T. V. (1977) · doi:10.2307/325258 · Cited by 937
Wilson, D., & Sperber, D. (1993) · Lingua · doi:10.1016/0024-3841(93)90058-5 · Cited by 908 · see citing works
Linell, P. (1998) · Impact · doi:10.1075/impact.3 · Cited by 900 · see citing works
Searle, J. R. (1975) · BRILL eBooks · doi:10.1163/9789004368811_004 · Cited by 794 · see citing works
Different cultures, different languages, different speech acts
Wierzbicka, A. (1985) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/0378-2166(85)90023-2 · Cited by 732 · see citing works
Relevance theory explains the selection task
Sperber, D. (1995) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/0010-0277(95)00666-m · Cited by 711 · see citing works
Récanati, F. (2003) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511615382 · Cited by 501 · see citing works
Austin on Locutionary and Illocutionary Acts
Searle, J. R. (1968) · The Philosophical Review · doi:10.2307/2183008 · Cited by 391 · see citing works
Millikan, R. G. (2005) · doi:10.1093/0199284768.001.0001 · Cited by 384 · see citing works
(2008) · Pragmatics & beyond. New series · doi:10.1075/pbns.178 · Cited by 360 · see citing works
Searle, J. R. (1980) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-009-8964-1_10 · Cited by 358 · see citing works
Pragmatics and the English Language
Culpeper, J., & Haugh, M. (2014) · doi:10.1007/978-1-137-39391-3 · Cited by 324 · see citing works
On questions following questions in service encounters
Merritt, M. (1976) · Language in Society · doi:10.1017/s0047404500007168 · Cited by 290 · see citing works
The concept of preference in conversation analysis
Bilmes, J. (1988) · Language in Society · doi:10.1017/s0047404500012744 · Cited by 270 · see citing works
Ariel, M. (2010) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511777912 · Cited by 235 · see citing works
The paradox of communication: Socio-cognitive approach to pragmatics
Kecskes, I. (2010) · Pragmatics and Society · doi:10.1075/ps.1.1.04kec · Cited by 227 · see citing works
Uptake and Conventionality in Illocution
Sbisà, M. (2009) · Lodz Papers in Pragmatics · doi:10.2478/v10016-009-0003-0 · Cited by 156 · see citing works
The Grammar of Interactional Language
Wiltschko, M. E. (2021) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108693707 · Cited by 137 · see citing works
Editorial: Linguistics and pragmatics
Haberland, H., & Mey, J. L. (1977) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/0378-2166(77)90019-4 · Cited by 133 · see citing works
Haugh, M. (2008) · Intercultural Pragmatics · doi:10.1515/ip.2008.006 · Cited by 129 · see citing works
(2011) · Mouton eBooks · doi:10.1515/9783110214260 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Harris, D. W., Fogal, D., & Moss, M. (2018) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780198738831.003.0001 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
Ideology and Speech-Act Theory
Pratt, M. L. (1986) · Poetics Today · doi:10.2307/1772088 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
Pragmatic Approaches (Im)politeness
Culpeper, J., & Terkourafi, M. (2017) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/978-1-137-37508-7_2 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
Fox, B. A. (2014) · Discourse Studies · doi:10.1177/1461445614557762 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Brown, P., Levinson, S., & Gumperz, J. (2021) · Cross-Cultural Pragmatics · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511813085 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Levinson, S. C. (2016) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199697960.013.22 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Lewiński, M. (2021) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-021-03087-7 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
An interactional account of illocutionary practice
Witek, M. (2014) · Language Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2014.08.003 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Liberalism and Campus Hate Speech: A Philosophical Examination
Altman, A. (1993) · Ethics · doi:10.1086/293497 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Sentences, utterances, and speech acts
Kissine, M. (2012) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9781139022453.010 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Im/politeness and discursive pragmatics
Blitvich, P. G.-C., & Sifianou, M. (2019) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2019.03.015 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Mey, J. L., & Talbot, M. L. M. A. (1988) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/0378-2166(88)90056-2 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Speech Acts, Effects and Responses
Sbisà, M. (1992) · Pragmatics & beyond. New series · doi:10.1075/pbns.21.06sbi · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Indirect request processing, sentence types and illocutionary forces
Ruytenbeek, N., Ostashchenko, E., & Kissine, M. (2017) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2017.07.011 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Action Ascription in Social Interaction
Deppermann, A., & Haugh, M. (2022) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108673419.001 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Incitement to discriminatory hatred, illocution and perlocution
Assimakopoulos, S. (2020) · Pragmatics and Society · doi:10.1075/ps.18071.ass · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Self-citationvan Rees, M. A. (1992) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/0378-2166(92)90027-9 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Levinson, S. C. (2024) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009489584 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Sbisà, M. (2012) · Lodz Papers in Pragmatics · doi:10.1515/lpp-2012-0002 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Linguistics and pragmatics, 25 years after☆
Haberland, H., & Mey, J. L. (2002) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/s0378-2166(02)00149-2 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Culpeper, J. (2021) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108954105.003 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
XII.—How to Talk: Some Simple Ways
Austin, J. L. (1953) · Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society (Hardback) · doi:10.1093/aristotelian/53.1.227 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Landert, D., Dayter, D., Messerli, T. C., & Locher, M. A. (2023) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009091107 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Speech act theory – the decline of a paradigm
Burkhardt, A. (1990) · De Gruyter eBooks · doi:10.1515/9783110859485.91 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Danziger, R. (2022) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009184410 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Pragmatics, (Im)Politeness, and Intergroup Communication
Blitvich, P. G.-C. (2024) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009184373 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Austin’s Speech Acts and Mey’s Pragmemes
Oishi, E. (2016) · Perspectives in pragmatics, psychology & philosophy · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-43491-9_18 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Speech Act Pluralism in Argumentative Polylogues
Lewiński, M. (2021) · Informal Logic · doi:10.22329/il.v41i3.6855 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Pragmatics, Utterance Meaning, and Representational Gesture
Wilson, J. (2024) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009031080 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Dayter, D., Locher, M. A., & Messerli, T. C. (2023) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009261210 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Elder, C.-H. (2024) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009036672 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Chapman, S. (2006) · doi:10.1007/978-0-230-21003-5 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Jucker, A. H. (2024) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009421461 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Ostension and the communicative function of natural language
Assimakopoulos, S. (2022) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2022.01.021 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Self-citationSbisà, M. (2024) · doi:10.1093/9780191927096.001.0001 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Misleading Appearances: Searle on Assertion and Meaning
Kissine, M. (2010) · Erkenntnis · doi:10.1007/s10670-010-9229-z · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Assimakopoulos, S. (2008) · doi:10.1515/9783110211474.1.105 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Self-citationBeyond meaningNN and ostension
Assimakopoulos, S. (2021) · Pragmatics & beyond. New series · doi:10.1075/pbns.324.c1 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Self-citationPragmatics Seen Through the Prism of Society
Mey, J. L. (2016) · Perspectives in pragmatics, psychology & philosophy · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-43491-9_6 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Assimakopoulos, S. (2017) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315668925-24 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Self-citation(2022) · Handbook of pragmatics online/Handbook of pragmatics · doi:10.1075/hop.m2 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Leveraging Relations in Diaspora
Reiter, R. M. (2024) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009206617 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
The state of the art in speech act theory
Weigand, E. (1996) · Pragmatics & Cognition · doi:10.1075/pc.4.2.10wei · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Interpretation, relevance and the ideological effects of discursive practice
Assimakopoulos, S. (2021) · Pragmatics & Cognition · doi:10.1075/pc.21015.ass · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Self-citationPragmatics in the Health Sciences
Garraffa, M., & Mazzaggio, G. (2025) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009496018 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Sbisà, M. (2022) · Handbook of pragmatics online/Handbook of pragmatics · doi:10.1075/hop.m2.spe1 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Recanati, F. (n.d.) · Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy · doi:10.4324/9780415249126-u028-1
Bach, K. (n.d.) · Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy · doi:10.4324/9780415249126-u043-1
Wilson, P. (2003) · Handbook of Pragmatics · doi:10.1075/hop.7.ell1
The Soft, Interpretive Underbelly of Generative Semantics
Sadock, J. M. (1975) · Speech Acts · doi:10.1163/9789004368811_015
Kecskes, I. (2013) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199892655.001.0001
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 40
- Jucker, Speech Acts: Discursive, Multimodal, Diachronic
- Assimakopoulos, Speech Act Theory: Between Narrow and Broad Pragmatics
- Alston, 1994, Foundations of Speech Act Theory: Philosophical and Linguistic Perspectives, 29
- Austin, 1962, How to Do Things with Words
- Bach, 1999, The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences, 359
- Ayer, 1936, Language, Truth, and Logic
- Langton, 1993, Speech acts and unspeakable acts, Philosophy and Public Affairs, 22, 293
- Blakemore, 1992, Understanding Utterances
- Verschueren, 1987, Pragmatics as a Theory of Linguistic Adaptation (IPrA Working Document 1)
- Searle, 1985, Foundations of Illocutionary Logic
- Green, 2021, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Huang, 2010, The Pragmatics Encyclopedia, 13
- Schegloff, 1979, Everyday Language: Studies in Ethnomethodology, 23
- Morgan, 1978, Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 9: Pragmatics, 261
- Bar-Hillel, 1971, Out of the pragmatic wastebasket, Linguistic Inquiry, 2, 401
- Sinclair, Alasdair . 1976. The Sociolinguistic Significance of the Form of Requests in Service Encounters: An Empirical Investigation. Unpublished PhD thesis: University of Cambridge.
- Juliane, 2021, Cross-Cultural Pragmatics
- Lakoff, 1973, The logic of politeness: Or, minding your p’s and q’s, Proceedings from the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 9, 292
- Fairclough, 1997, Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, 258
- Katz, 1977, Propositional Structure and Illocutionary Force: A Study of the Contribution of Sentence Meaning to Speech Acts
- Portner, 2004, Proceedings of SALT 14, 235
- Grice, 1989, Studies in the Way of Words
- Searle, 1975, Language, Mind, and Knowledge: Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 344
- Bach, 2012, The Continuum Companion to the Philosophy of Language, 153
- Grice, 1986, Philosophical Grounds of Rationality, 45
- Morris, 1938, International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, 77
- Haaparanta, 2013, Philosophy and its recent history: Remarks on What is Analytic Philosophy? by Hans-Johann Glock, Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy, 2, 2
- 10.1017/9781009036672 · DOI
- Sbisà, 2007, How to read Austin, Pragmatics, 17, 461
- Huang, 2014, Pragmatics
- Locher, Fiction and Pragmatics
- Saul, 2018, New Work on Speech Acts, 360
- 10.1017/9781009184373 · DOI
- Blakemore, 1987, Semantic Constraints on Relevance
- Mey, 2001, Pragmatics: An Introduction
- Ross, 1970, Readings in English Transformational Grammar, 222
- Wilson, 1988, Human Agency: Language, Duty and Value, 77
- Sperber, 2015, Beyond speaker’s meaning, Croatian Journal of Philosophy, 15, 117
- Sadock, 2004, The Handbook of Pragmatics, 53
- Davis, 1991, Pragmatics: A Reader, 11
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Pragmatic Theorizing in, and Through, Modern Greek: A Roadmap of Past and Ongoing Research
Assimakopoulos, S., & Πιατά, Ά. (2026) · Languages · doi:10.3390/languages11050107
Self-citationLa importancia de la teoría de los actos de habla en el lenguaje jurídico
Duque, E. M. T. (2025) · Jurídicas · doi:10.17151/jurid.2025.22.2.9
Language and Behavior: A Philosophy of Linguistic Habits in Everyday Life
Anitasari, N. L. M. (2026) · Indonesian Journal of Foreign Language Studies · doi:10.65576/indofes.v3i1.48
Unveiling the speech acts employed in an aggressive Nigerian Christian prayers sessions
Obiorah, K. E., & Edeoga, P. N. (2026) · Journal of Language and Pragmatics Studies. · doi:10.58881/jlps.v5i2.159
Analysis of Units of Speech Etiquette Expressing Anxiety and Concern
Zinovjeva, M. (2026) · Филология научные исследования · doi:10.7256/2454-0749.2026.7.80566
- Authors
- Assimakopoulos, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Malta (MT)
- Corresponding author
- Assimakopoulos, Stavros
- Venue
- Cambridge University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Published
- 2025-12-15
- OpenAlex
- W7115195744
- Semantic Scholar
- c44aef696d70d47c2e53e8943a1c3c0b3a931364
- Cited by
- 5
- References
- 73
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 1
- FWCI
- 10.51
- Type
- book
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Linguistics and Discourse Analysis
- Keywords
- speech act theory, pragmatics, Austin, John Searle, Grice, speech acts
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
