locution [Lat. locutio ‘the act of speaking, speech’]

In Austin’s speech act theory (1962), a part of every speech act that comprises the articulation of linguistic forms (phonetic act), the production of words and strings of words in a particular grammatical order (phatic act) and the reference to objects and states of affairs in the world by means of language (rhetic act). Searle (1969) subsumes the phonetic and phatic act under utterance act, while the rhetic act corresponds to his propositional act. ( proposition) ( also illocution, perlocution, proposition)

References

Austin, J.L. 1962. How to do things with words. Oxford. Searle, J.R. 1968. Austin on illocutionary acts. Philosophische Rundschau 77. 405-24. ——1969. Speech acts: an essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge.