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Yule 1996:48 then asserts that there are three different aspects when it comes to speech act. Those three aspects are locutionary acts, illocutionary acts, and
perlocutionary acts, which each concerns with distinctive cases.
2.2.1. Locutionary Acts
To say something is to do something. This is what Austin 1962:94 states when explaining about locutionary acts. In order to be understood, the actions that
we try to perform via utterances must be expressed linguistically. Yule 1996:48 says that locutionary act is the basic act of utterance, which is
the act of producing a meaningful linguistic expression. Expression itself can come through different forms. It can be sounds, words, or full sentences. However, Yule
underlines utterances that can be categorised as locutionary acts are only those utterances which contains meaning.
Saying, “Bonjour Comment allez-vous?” in English would not be considered a locutionary act, simply because the sentence is not understood in
English. However, the sentence is certainly a locutionary act in French.
2.2.2. Illocutionary Acts
Normally people do not utter something without a purpose. They must have certain intentions when producing words locutions. This is what we call as
illocutionary act. Illocutionary act refers to the fact that people must have a goal when expressing their utterances. Illocutions are abstract forms and therefore can
only be analysed by using pragmatics, as pragmatics deals with invisible meanings.
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We may produce utterances either to make a statement, an offer, an explanation, an argument, or other communicative purposes. This is also generally
known as the illocutionary force of the utterance Yule 1996:48. For instance, when somebody utters “This room is terribly hot”, they might not just
saying that sentence for no exact reasons. They might actually intend to ask somebody else in that room to turn on the air conditioner, or simply to open the
window. Illocutionary act is certainly more complicated to be figured out, because it
requires us to pay close attention to what actually the speaker intends to imply through their utterances. Analysing illocutionary act obliges us to not only
understand the utterances, but to go through one’s mind and infer what they aim to say.
When we cannot infer and make sense of what the speaker intends to mean, we have failed in understanding the illocutionary act of the utterances. However, it is
worth noting that understanding illocutionary act is actually a very subjective case, since different people might interpret the utterances differently. For instance:
X : What would you like to drink? A glass of plain water or some fruit juice? Y : I just had two glasses of orange juice.
The conversation above could be inferred differently. In one case, by saying “I just had two glasses of orange juice” might actully mean that the speaker prefers
to only have a glass of plain water. In another case, it could also mean that the speaker is not currently thirsty anymore since he has had two glasses of orange juice
before. Based on these fact, it is safe to say that inferring utterances need not only a
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deep understanding, but also the closest interpretation of what the utterances actually imply.
2.2.3. Perlocutionary Acts
