Page "Illocutionary act" Paragraph 14

If we adopt the notion of illocutionary force as an aspect of meaning, then it appears that the ( intended ) ' force ' of certain sentences, or utterances, is not quite obvious.

If someone says, " It sure is cold in here ", there are several different illocutionary acts that might be aimed at by the utterance.

The utterer might intend to describe the room, in which case the illocutionary force would be that of ' describing '.

But she might also intend to criticise someone who should have kept the room warm.

Or it might be meant as a request to someone to close the window.

These forces may be interrelated: it may be by way of stating that the temperature is too cold that one criticises someone else.

Such a performance of an illocutionary act by means of the performance of another is referred to as an indirect speech act.