| As the representative personage of ordinary-language philosophy,Austin has a great influence in British and American philosophy.He has made numerous contributions to the philosophy of language.Being his most outstanding thought,it is significant that the theory of language acts is advancing the philosophy of language.There exists two stages on the development and perfection of Austin’s language acts theory: the difference between performative utterance and constative utterance,and the tripartite model on locutionary act,illocutionary act and perlocutionary act.From a new perspective,the theory of speech act explains the relationship between language and the world.The thought on the theory of language acts adds a new standard in the whole discourse evaluation system.It not only promotes the development of ordinary language school,but also makes contributes to the study on the philosophy of law,ethics and the philosophy of mind.The paper analyzes the background of Austin’s thought on the theory of language acts,discussing the influence from Moore,Wittgenstein and Reyer and exploring the process on the formation and development of Austin’s language acts theory from different perspectives.The paper points out that performative utterance is the initial focus of Austin and his viewpoint is that performative utterance is the combination between words and actions.Based on the viewpoint of previous philosophers on language,Austin proposed the distinction between performative utterance and constative utterance.With the depth of Austin’s understanding on language and behavior,the distinction developed into the tripartite model which is sufficient theory of language acts in latter period.There are certain difference but relationship on the viewpoint back and forth,which belongs to the in-depth exploration of ordinary language.The theory of language acts is a new breakthrough in the discussion of philosophy and language essence and it also deepens the understanding and usage of language.The research on the theory of language acts is of the great practical value as well as research significant.Being the in-depth study of Austin’s language acts theory,it is gradually more closed between language and the world.Considering the range of ordinary language widely and thinking about the essence of language,Austin promotes the breakthrough on the traditional mode of thinking,which breaks through the limitation of true-or-false concept in language analysis and makes us more likely to think about the philosophy of language. |
