Alston expands on the work of J.L. Austin and John Searle, categorizing illocutionary acts into five primary types:
Utterances that express a psychological state, such as apologizing or congratulating. Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning
Alston’s central thesis is that for a sentence to have a particular meaning is for it to be to perform illocutionary acts of a matching type. Alston expands on the work of J
Acts that bring about a change in status or state simply by being uttered, such as marrying a couple or adjourning a meeting. Key Components of a Speech Act Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning