The Speech Acts theory: a study of Speech Act as one of the entries of the philosophy of action.

Abstract

This paper aims to shed light on one of the entries of the "philosophy of action" as a philosophy in which thought and action are interdependent in a sort of reversal. Hence "we think by action and act by thought." It is a philosophy that has recently attracted more and more attention by researchers. Obsessed with reconsidering the old/new question of the relationship between thought and action, or theory and practice, they tackle it by employing the considerable developments that some sciences have achieved, which has helped them in deepening their approach to the topic and further scrutinizing some of its still-ambiguous aspects. As it is impossible for a single researcher to provide a comprehensive approach to this relationship in its different aspects, we have chosen to restrict our effort in the present paper to dealing with one aspect; speech acts, as the materialization of one of the aspects of the speech-action intermarriage. This intermarriage derives its justification from the fact that these acts provide a new perspective on language, moving it from the narrowness of Semantics into the vastness of Pragmatics, and turning it into a communicative action located within a relational network that takes the form of a tool for influencing the world and changing its situations instead of merely describing it and expressing its connotations. Therefore, it has become certain that the speech-act carries within itself a social act, and it remains that we examine the ways in which an idea in the human mind can move it to the stage of action. In so doing, we refer to the contribution of the theory of speech-acts as constructed by Austin and continued by Searle.