ABSTRACT
Shakespeare’s use of a particular phrase-type—where the verb names the act performed in uttering it—plays a cardinal role in the Sonnets. Appreciating this calls for the attunement of philosophy and literary criticism of poetry. The phrase-type figures particularly in sonnets that reflect on poetry as a form of action. So one prominent issue it raises for philosophy and literary criticism is what a speech act approach to the Sonnets should look like. Another such issue is scepticism.
