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Definition of Speech act
1. Noun. The use of language to perform some act.
Specialized synonyms: Congratulation, Felicitation, Slander, Proposal, Proposition, Bid, Bidding, Command, Dictation, Agreement, Citation, Disagreement, Offer, Offering, Asking, Request, Reply, Response, Description, Affirmation, Assertion, Statement, Denial, Rejection, Objection, Informing, Making Known, Disclosure, Revealing, Revelation, Promise, Boast, Boasting, Jactitation, Self-praise, Naming, Challenge, Explanation, Denouncement, Denunciation, Address, Speech, Resignation
Definition of Speech act
1. Noun. (linguistics) ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Lexicographical Neighbors of Speech Act
Literary usage of Speech act
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The Christian Remembrancer by William Scott (1853)
"In Lady Macbeth's speech, Act i. Scene 5, the expression 'blanket of the dark, '
which has puzzled the ingenuity and tried the tempers of the editors, ..."
2. Werner's Magazine: A Magazine of Expression by Music Teachers National Association (1901)
"The physiology of speech is perfectly understood,7 and we know exactly what takes
place in the speech-act when speech is normal. Voice is primarily sound ..."
3. Some Account of the English Stage: From the Restoration in 1660 to 1830 by John Genest (1832)
"the author in this T. has comprehended all the principal events relative to
Alexander's successors. 4. Julius Caesar—act 1st—Juno makes a long speech—act ..."
4. A History of English Dramatic Literature to the Death of Queen Anne by Adolphus William Ward (1899)
"1 A passage in the Cook's speech (act ii. sc. a) is imitated, as Gifford pointed
out, from Jonson's masque Neptune's Triumph, performed on Twelfth Night, ..."
5. Eternal Possibilities: A Neutral Ground for Meaning and Existence by David Weissman (1977)
"... users who know the rule will be able to respond with expressions that are
appropriate in the context that has been altered by the foregoing speech act ..."
6. Conceptions of Social Inquiry by J. J. Snyman (1993)
"In the process Derrida uncovers and problematizes the (unwarranted) assumptions
of (JL Austin's) speech-act theory, viz. that the ethics of sincerity ..."