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.

The broader framework of speech-act theory, which Alston refines, identifies three distinct layers of an utterance: Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning

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. A sentence like "It's locked" has a basic

Attempts to get the listener to do something, such as requesting or commanding. In his seminal work , philosopher William P

In his seminal work , philosopher William P. Alston argues that the meaning of a sentence is fundamentally rooted in its illocutionary act potential . He defines an illocutionary act as the act of saying something with a specific "content," such as a request, an assertion, or a promise. The Core Theory: Sentence Meaning as Potential

Meaning is determined by a sentence's potential to play the role a speaker intended.