What is a defective illocutionary act?

Definition
	A defective illocutionary act is an illocutionary act, whether successful or unsuccessful, in which one or more of the preparatory or sincerity conditions for the act are not met.

Examples (English)
	The utterance Pass the salt in a situation in which a preparatory condition, the addressee’s ability to comply, is not met because there is no salt on the table A lie or insincere promise, in which the act itself is defective even if the statement or promise is successfully made

Generic
	A defective illocutionary act is a kind of
	What is an illocutionary act?

Source
	Searle and Vanderveken 1985 22–23

Context for this page:

Concept module: defective illocutionary act
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): D
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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