Illocutionary Acts And Sentence Meaning Direct

Alston expands on the work of J.L. Austin and John Searle, categorizing illocutionary acts into five primary types:

Attempts to get the listener to do something, such as requesting or commanding.

Alston explains the performance of these acts through the concept of "taking responsibility" ( Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning

A sentence like "It's locked" has a basic meaning because it is usable to perform the act of asserting that something is locked.

Utterances that express a psychological state, such as apologizing or congratulating. Alston expands on the work of J

Alston’s central thesis is that for a sentence to have a particular meaning is for it to be to perform illocutionary acts of a matching type.

Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning by William P. Alston Utterances that express a psychological state, such as

Acts that commit the speaker to future action, like promising or vowing.