What is a commissive illocutionary point?

A commissive illocutionary point is the illocutionary point of a speaker committing to bring about the state of affairs described in the propositional content of the utterance.

According to certain analyses, a commissive illocutionary point is one of the five basic purposes that a speaker can have in making an utterance.

• What is an illocutionary point?

Searle and Vanderveken 1985 38–39

Crystal 1985 57

Context for this page:

• Concept module: commissive illocutionary point
• In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): C
• 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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