ABSTRACT
The understanding of language as democratic and speech acting as the selective and more or less powerful activation of the language institution in the service of some interest or intention is denied by Roland Barthes in his inaugural address at College de France in 1977. A language has no explicit task. It has no formal leadership, although some people may take on the task of developing and regulating a specific language. Speech acting can be seen as the agent in the language institution. Speech acting makes use of the concepts, norms and rules of the language institution. The concepts, norms and rules of the language institution can be more or less respected in actual speech, in interlocutions and in deliberations. The Austin–Searle line of investigation of speech acting based on the language institution has highlighted how commitments and obligations are the carriers of community and society and how infelicity to promises disrupts community.
