speech act theory

Type: Concept

As of November 2026, speech act theory has been mentioned in one podcast episode on AAAI (Nov 2025). Highlighted as a foundational theory for understanding communication in multi-agent systems.

In the philosophy of language and linguistics, a speech act is an utterance considered as an instance of action in a social context rather than as the mere expression of a proposition. To say "I resign", "I apologise" or "You're fired" is, in suitable circumstances, to perform the very act of resigning, apologising or dismissing, not simply to describe it. Speech-act theory therefore treats speaking a language as a kind of rule-governed social behaviour in which people make claims, issue orders,