J.L. Austin

British philosopher who developed speech act theory — the analysis of language as action — and was the founder of Oxford ordinary language philosophy.

Speech act theory: language is not merely descriptive — utterances do things. Performatives vs. constatives: 'I promise' is an action, not a description. Locutionary, illocutionary, perlocutionary acts: what we say, what we do in saying it, what effect we produce. How to Do Things with Words: posthumously published lectures that are the foundational text of speech act theory.