Definition of Speech act

1. Noun. The use of language to perform some act.


Definition of Speech act

1. Noun. (linguistics) ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Speech Act

speculatory
speculist
speculists
speculoos
speculum
speculum forceps
speculums
sped
spede
spee
speech
speech-endowed
speech-language pathology
speech-read
speech acoustics
speech act
speech acts
speech articulation tests
speech audiogram
speech audiometer
speech audiometry
speech balloon
speech balloons
speech bubble
speech bubbles
speech bulb
speech centres
speech communication
speech community
speech day

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 ..."

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