Acting with words

In my blog last week, I wrote about J.L. Austin’s language theory. John Searle became that much inspired by Austin’s work, and also by the work of P.F. Strawson, that he has developed their ideas into a theory of what he called “speech acts”. Searle elaborated his views in his dissertation, titled “Sense and Reference”, which became the basis of his famous book Speech Acts, published in 1969. This book is full of ideas and theoretical insights. Here I want to focus on Searle’s classification of illocutionary acts, since it gives a good impression of how we act with words when we speak.
Originally Searle presented in his Speech Acts a kind of taxonomy of eight types of illocutionary acts. By combining some types, later he distinguished five main types:
1) Assertives
2) Directives
3) Commissives
4) Expressives
5) Declarations
Ad 1) Assertives are statements or assertions that something is the case. However, they do not utter objective facts like locutionary acts but views, as the name already implies. So, they are more than simple factual sentences like “The cat is on the mat”. For instance, an utterance like “I am an expert in pinhole photography” is an assertive in Searle’s sense, since I claim to be such an expert, although it may be false. Assertives try to convince the speaker. Here are some other ones: suggesting, putting forward, swearing, boasting, concluding.
Ad 2) Directives are utterings that are meant to make someone else act. “Can you open the window?” “Can you give me the pen?” are examples. Besides questions they can be orders, requests, invitations, advices, begging, and so on.
Ad 3) Commissives commit the speaker to future actions. “I promise you that I’ll come tomorrow.” Or less explicitly: “I’ll buy the book for you.” Or “Tomorrow I’ll be at home.” So commissives are more or less explicit promises, plans, vows, bets, oaths, and the like.
Ad 4) Expressives tell how the speaker feels about the situation. “Thank you” is a case in point, or “I like it”, “Sorry”, etc. So here one must think of thanking, apologizing, welcoming, deploring, and the like.
Ad 5) Declarations are utterings that make something happen by its content. Austin would call them performative sentences. Marrying a couple and declarations of war are examples. It will be clear that such an uttering is only valid if the speaker is entitled to make the declaration concerned. If this is not the case, we say, for instance, that the speaker is a crook, an actor, an imitator, or something like that.
That’s how we act with words. 

Sources
- “3.1.3 Searle’s Classification of Speech Acts”. https://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/projects/milca/courses/dialogue/html/node66.html#searleclass
- “Cultural Reader”. https://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.com/2018/01/speech-acts-classifications.html
- John Searle. American philosopher”. https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Searle
- Searle, John, R., Speech acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969.
- Searle, John R., “A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts”. file:///C:/Users/bijde/AppData/Local/Temp/7-08_Searle.pdf