Speech act

A speech act is an act that a speaker performs when making an utterance, including; a general act (illocutionary act) that a speaker performs, analyzable as including the uttering of words (utterance acts) referring and predicating (propositional acts), and a particular intention in making the utterance (illocutionary force), an act involved in the illocutionary act, including utterance acts and propositional acts, and the production of a particular effect in the addressee (perlocutionary act).  

We perform speech acts when we offer an apology, greeting, request, complaint, invitation, compliment, or refusal. A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication. A speech act might contain just one word, as in "Sorry!" to perform an apology, or several words or sentences: "I’m sorry I forgot your birthday. I just let it slip my mind." Speech acts include real-life interactions and require not only knowledge of the language but also appropriate use of that language within a given culture.

Here are some examples of speech acts we use or hear every day:

Greeting: "Hi, Eric. How are things going?"

Request:   "Could you pass me the mashed potatoes, please?"

Complaint:   "I’ve already been waiting three weeks for the computer, and I was told it would be delivered within a week."

Invitation:   "We’re having some people over Saturday evening and wanted to know if you’d like to join us."

Compliment:   "Hey, I really like your tie!"

Refusal:   "Oh, I’d love to see that movie with you but this Friday just isn’t going to work."

            Here are some kinds of speech acts; those are illocutionary act, perlocutionary act, propositional act, and utterance act.

            A speech act is a kind of meaning and pragmatic function. Meaning and pragmatic function is a general heading under which terminology relating to the various areas of study of language use and interpretation is collected. These areas are variously categorized as either semantic or pragmatic.