How words can trigger actions
You can do an incredible amount with words. How to Do Things with
Words is also the name of the well-known book by the British philosopher
J. L. Austin from 1962, in which he substantiated ‘language theory’.
He argued that in day-to-day life we distinguish between ‘doing’ and
‘talking’ but that there is in fact no difference. Speaking is also an action.
His thesis: sentences have a ‘propositional’ meaning (this is the
information contained in the sentence), which can be ‘true’ or ‘false’. But
sentences also have an ‘illocutionary’ meaning. This means that we are
doing something when we speak, including something essential (‘doing
something in saying something’). Examples include requests, warnings,
threats, recommendations. Such an illocution can succeed or fail – for
example, if you don’t take the speaker seriously, the act of speaking has
failed. Then there is a third dimension, the perlocution. Here it is about the
extent to which whatever was said has consequences – so whether the
person being addressed acts on what is said or has a change of mind
because of it (‘doing something by saying something’).
Let’s take an example. If you say to a couple who happen to be sitting
next to you: ‘I hereby declare you husband and wife’, then the
‘proposition’ is the same as what a vicar would say at a marriage
ceremony in a church. The difference: the sentence is just words. But
spoken by a vicar the sentence has weight and effect; it is ‘illocutionary’
and seals the marriage. And with a bit of luck it is also perlocutionary, if
the married couple stick to their vows in future. The sentence of the vicar
thereby triggers subsequent actions.
The Speech Act Theory explained in two sentences: ‘What do we do when
we speak? What impact do we have when we speak?’