A perlocutionary act (or perlocutionary effect) is the effect of an

utterance In spoken language analysis, an utterance is a continuous piece of speech, often beginning and ending with a clear pause. In the case of oral languages, it is generally, but not always, bounded by silence. Utterances do not exist in written langu ...

on an interlocutor. Examples of perlocutionary acts include persuading, convincing, scaring, enlightening, inspiring, or otherwise affecting the interlocutor. The perlocutionary effect of an utterance is contrasted with the

locutionary act In linguistics and the philosophy of language, a locutionary act is the performance of an utterance, and is one of the types of force, in addition to illocutionary act and perlocutionary act, typically cited in Speech Act Theory. Speech Act Theor ...

, which is the act of producing the utterance, and with the

illocutionary force The concept of illocutionary acts was introduced into linguistics by the philosopher J. L. Austin in his investigation of the various aspects of speech acts. In his framework, ''locution'' is what was said and meant, ''illocution'' is what was done, ...

, which does not depend on the utterance's effect on the interlocutor. As an example, consider the following utterance: "By the way, I have a CD of

Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

; would you like to borrow it?" Its illocutionary function is an ''offer'', while its intended perlocutionary effect might be to impress the interlocutor, or to show a friendly attitude, or to encourage an interest in a particular type of music. The actual perlocutionary effect can be different than the intended perlocutionary effect. In this example, the speaker may have intended to show a friendly attitude, but the listener might become irritated if they thought the speaker's intent was to impress them.

References

Linguistics Pragmatics Oral communication Discourse analysis {{pragmatics-stub