Oral Communication
In linguistics , a speech act is an utterance defined in terms of a speaker's intention and the effect it has on a listener. Essentially, it is the actions which the speaker hopes to provoke in their audience. Speech acts might be requests, warnings, promises, apologies, greetings, or any number of declarations. As you might imagine, speech acts are an important part of communication. Speech-Act Theory Speech-act theory is a subfield of pragmatics . This area of study is concerned with the ways in which words can be used not only to present information but also to carry out actions. It is used in linguistics, philosophy, psychology, legal and literary theories, and even the development of artificial intelligence. Speech-act theory was introduced in 1975 by Oxford philosopher J.L. Austin in "How to Do Things With Words " and further developed by American philosopher J.R. Searle. It considers three levels or compone