ABSTRACT
Suppose that, following John Searle, you have committed yourself to the thesis (call it ‘Thesis A’) that three of the major categories of illocutionary acts are the categories of assertive, directive and commissive illocutionary acts, roughly characterizable as follows: 1
An assertive illocutionary act with propositional content p is an act whose speaker presents as actual the state of affairs represented by p. (Examples: asserting that p, claiming that p, predicting that p, informing someone that p, etc.)
A directive illocutionary act with propositional content p is an act whose speaker attempts to make his hearer make actual the state of affairs represented by p. (Examples: asking someone to p, requesting someone to p, ordering someone to p, imploring someone to p, etc.)
A commissive illocutionary act with propositional content p is an act whose speaker commits himself to make actual the state of affairs represented by p. (Examples: undertaking to p, promising to p, threatening to p, accepting to p, etc.)
