Historical Critics of Speech Act Theory

‘Speech Act Theory’ is a line of linguistic discourse developed by J. L. Austin in “How to Do Things with Words”, a compilation of a series of speeches that he made in 1955. These were published posthumously and further refined by J. R. Searle. Critical theorists in other areas of critical theory use speech act theory as a way of approaching aspects of their own discourse. It is used mainly in the fields of linguistics and philosophy, meaning that, in speaking, a person is doing so through a particular set of pre-set conventions. The basics of the theory centre on the idea that words, when placed together, do not always have a fixed meaning. Austin’s work has had many critics; David Gorman explains that many people have used his work without fully understanding its criticisms, and Austin’s main arguments have had only one notable follow up work, that by Searle in 1969 [9, p. 109]. Speech-act theory is a continuing discourse, still written about and criticised in hundreds of articles and books. Edward MacKinnon states that “the various conceptual systems we have indicated are only intelligible as extensions of an ordinary language framework” [10, p. 235], meaning that, as its basis, the theory must first have an already working or ‘ordinary’ set of rules that are indisputable and reliable.

References

1. Alston W. P. Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning / William P. Alston. – Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2000.

2. Austin J. L. How to Do Things with Words / John Langshaw Austin. – 2^nd ed. – Cambridge (MA) : Harvard University Press, 2005.

3. Austin J. L. Performative Utterances / John Langshaw Austin // Philosophical Papers / [J. O. Urmson, G. J. Warnock (eds.)]. – Oxford : Clarendon, 1961.

4. Brock J. An Introduction to Peirce’s Theory of Speech Acts / Jarrett Brock // Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society. – 1981. – vol. 17. – P. 319-326.

5. Bühler K. Die Axiomatik der Sprachwissenschaften / Karl Bühler // Kant-Studien. – 1933. – vol. 38.

6. Bühler K. Sprachteorie / Karl Bühler. – Jena : Fischer, 1934.

7. Doerge F. Ch. Illocutionary Acts – Austin’s Account and What Searle Made of It / Friedrich Christoph Doerge. – Tuebingen, 2006.

8. Dore J. Holophrases, Speech Acts and Language Universals / John Dore // Journal of Child Language. – 1975. – vol. 2. – P. 21-40.

9. Gorman D. The Use and Abuse of Speech-Act-Theory in Criticism / David Gorman // Poetics Today. – 1999. – vol. 20. – P. 93-119.

10. MacKinnon Ed. Language, Speech, and Speech-Acts / Edward MacKinnon // Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. – 1973. – vol. 34 (2). – P. 224-238.

11. Mulligan K. Promising and Other Social Acts – Their Constituents and Structure / K. Mulligan // Speech Act and Sachverhalt : Reinach and the Foundations of Realist Phenomenology / K. Mulligan. – Nijhoff, Dordrecht / Boston / Lankaster, 1987.

12. Reid Th. Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind / Thomas Reid. – Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 1969.

13. Schuhmann K. Elements of Speech Act Theory in the Work of Thomas Reid / Karl Schuhmann, Barry Smith // History of Philosophy Quarterly. – 1990. – vol. 7. – P. 47-66.

14. Searle J. R. Indirect Speech Acts / John R. Searle // Pragmatics : A Reader / [S. Davis (ed.)]. – Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1991. – P. 265-277.

15. Smith B. Towards a History of Speech Act Theory / Barry Smith // Speech Acts, Meanings, and Intentions : Critical Approaches to the Philosophy of John R. Searle / Barry Smith. – Berlin : Mouton de Gruyter, 1990. – P. 29-61.