Britannica
Sources used in this answer
Which kinds of utterances count as assertive speech acts in John Searleās taxonomy?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
John Searle
American philosopher John Searle, a major contributor to the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind.
In the taxonomy developed by the American philosopher John Searle, assertives are one of five primary categories of speech acts.12
Assertive speech acts are characterized by the speaker's attempt to present the world as being a certain way, which gives them a "word-to-world" direction of fit. By performing an assertive, the speaker expresses a belief that the propositional content of the utterance is true.1
Examples of utterances that count as assertive speech acts include:
* Statements12
* Descriptions12
* Predictions12