What is a perlocutionary act?

Definition
	A perlocutionary act is a speech act that produces an effect, intended or not, achieved in an addressee by a speaker’s utterance.

Examples
	Here are some examples of perlocutionary acts:
	Persuading Convincing Scaring Insulting Getting the addressee to do something

Generic
	A perlocutionary act is a kind of
	What is a speech act?

Sources
	Searle 1969 25
	Crystal 1985 225

Context for this page:

Concept module: perlocutionary act
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): P
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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