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How to Do Things with Words

Downloads: 100+
First published: 1962
Pages: 137

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About this book

J.L. Austin's classic work on pragmatics, "How to Do Things with Words," is credited with popularizing the concept of "speech act theory." Austin examines how language can be used to execute acts in addition to transmitting information in this book. He explores the idea of "illocutionary forces," or the unspoken motivations and consequences of our words. Austin offers a novel viewpoint on the nature of words and their influence on literature, philosophy, legal theory, and communication by analyzing performative utterances and claims.

About the author

J. L. Austin

How to Do Things with Words is a set of lectures published after Austin died, and its opening move is that a great many sentences describe nothing and so cannot be true or false: I promise, I name this ship, I apologise. Saying them performs the act.

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