Felicity conditions

In J. L. Austin's formulation of speech act theory, a performative utterance is neither true nor false, but can instead be deemed "felicitous" or "infelicitous" according to a set of conditions whose interpretation differs depending on whether the utterance in question is a declaration ("I sentence you to death"), a request ("I ask that you stop doing that") or a warning ("I warn you not to jump off the roof").

## Contents

* 1 Felicity conditions for declarations
* 2 Felicity conditions for requests
* 3 Felicity conditions for warnings
* 4 See also
* 5 References

## Felicity conditions for declarations

* Conventionality of procedure: the procedure (e.g. an oath) follows its conventional form
* Appropriate participants and circumstances: the participants are able to perform a felicitous speech act under the circumstances (e.g. a judge can sentence a criminal in court, but not on the street)
* Complete execution: the speaker completes the speech act without errors or interruptions

## Felicity conditions for requests

* Propositional content condition: the requested act is a future act of the hearer
* Preparatory precondition: 1) the speaker believes the hearer can perform the requested act; 2) it is not obvious that the hearer would perform the requested act without being asked
* Sincerity condition: the speaker genuinely wants the hearer to perform the requested act
* Essential condition: the utterance counts as an attempt by the speaker to have the hearer do an act

## Felicity conditions for warnings

* Propositional content condition: it is a future event
* Preparatory precondition: 1) the speaker believes the event will occur and be detrimental to the hearer; 2) the speaker believes that it is not obvious to the hearer that the event will occur
* Sincerity condition: the speaker genuinely believes that the event will be detrimental to the hearer
* Essential condition: the utterance counts as an attempt by the speaker to have the hearer recognize that a future event will be detrimental

## See also

* John Searle
* Illocutionary act
* Pragmatics

## References

* Austin, J. L. (1962) How to Do Things With Words. Oxford University Press.
* Searle, J. R. (1969) Speech acts. Cambridge University Press.

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