Perlocutionary act
Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms:
Top
perlocutionary act
perlocutionary act, a term used in speech act theory to designate an utterance that has an effect upon the actions, thoughts, or feelings of the listener, e.g. convincing, alarming, insulting, boring. The perlocutionary effect of an utterance may differ from the intended effect of the speaker's illocutionary act. See also affective.
Related Videos:
Top
Perlocutionary act
Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy:
Top
perlocutionary acts
An action performed by speech only if certain effects are generated, as persuading, ridiculing, or frightening someone. Perlocutionary acts thereby contrast with locutionary and illocutionary acts, which are performed independently of whether the utterance has its intended effects, or indeed any effects at all.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Perlocutionary act
A perlocutionary act (or perlocutionary effect) is a speech act, as viewed at the level of its psychological consequences, such as persuading, convincing, scaring, enlightening, inspiring, or otherwise getting someone to do or realize something. This is contrasted with locutionary and illocutionary acts (which are other levels of description, rather than different types of speech acts)[1].
Unlike the notion of locutionary act, which describes the linguistic function of an utterance, a perlocutionary effect is in some sense external to the performance. It may be thought of, in a sense, as the effect of the illocutionary act via the locutionary act. Therefore, when examining perlocutionary acts, the effect on the hearer or reader is emphasized.
As an example, consider the following utterance: "By the way, I have a CD of Debussy; would you like to borrow it?" Its illocutionary function is an offer, while its intended perlocutionary effect might be to impress the listener, or to show a friendly attitude, or to encourage an interest in a particular type of music.
- ^ Austin, John L. (1962), How to Do Things with Words, Oxford: OUP, p. 101: «Saying something will often, or even normally, produce certains consequential effects upon the feelings, thoughts, or actions of the audience, or of the speaker, or of other persons: and it may be done with the design, intention, or purpose of producing them».
 |
This linguistics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved.
Read more
Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Copyright © 1994, 1996, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Read more
