Talehandlingen

Talehandlingen is the Swedish term for the linguistic concept commonly known as a speech act. It refers to an utterance that performs an action through language, rather than merely describing or reporting something. The idea is central to pragmatics and the study of how language functions in use. The modern analysis of talehandlingen builds on the work of J. L. Austin and was later developed by John R. Searle. A standard framework distinguishes three levels: the locutionary act (the actual utterance and its literal meaning), the illocutionary act (the speaker’s intended performative force), and the perlocutionary act (the effects on listeners). Talehandlingen emphasizes the illocutionary dimension—the doing of something by saying something.

Speech acts are commonly categorized into several types. Representatives or constatives describe or assert facts about the world; directives attempt to get the listener to do something (requests, commands); commissives commit the speaker to a future action (promises, guarantees); expressives convey psychological states or attitudes (apologies, thanks); and verdictives or declaratives bring about a change in the social world through their utterance (declaring, resigning, judging). Many utterances function indirectly, serving as acts that accomplish more than their literal content would suggest depending on context and interpretation.

Felicity conditions influence whether a talehandling succeeds: the speaker must have the authority or appropriateness to perform the act, the intention must be sincere, and the conventional context must support the act. When these conditions fail, the utterance may misfire or produce unintended effects.

The study of talehandlingen spans linguistics, philosophy of language, and communication studies, with applications in discourse analysis, jurisprudence, and natural language processing.