The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Perlocutionary act

Perlocutionary act: A speech act involving a locution, or utterance, that affects the hearer, producing a change in his or her actions or state of mind. As introduced by British “ordinary-language” philosopher John L. Austin in How to Do Things with Words (1962), a perlocutionary act is “what we bring about or achieve by saying something, such as convincing, persuading, deterring, and even, say, surprising or misleading.” Notably, the occurrence of a perlocutionary act depends not on the speaker’s intent but, rather, on how the listener is affected by the statement in question.

EXAMPLE: As an illocutionary act, the statement “If you tell the secret, I’ll kill you” could be a threat or a joke. Whether a perlocutionary act also occurs depends on whether the listener is affected by the statement, for instance, by becoming scared or deciding not to tell the secret as a result.