Speech Act

For Austin and subsequent 'speech act theory', the 'speech act' is the linguistic unit sufficient to bring about a particular illocutionary action, given the right circumstances in the 'total speech situation'. Austin coined the term after collapsing his initial distinction between the constative and performative to describe the active operation of our utterances in the world, what we do in speaking. A speech act can be written as well as spoken: a verbal command understood as much a speech act as a written will.