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The Tongue as Either a Verbum Efficax or Verbum Inefficax
According to the SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms,[1] a “speech act” involves a “speaker” who makes an “utterance.” This includes articulating general declarations, as well as specific hypotheses, explanations, and warrants. Also included in a “speech act” is the “production of a particular effect in the addressee.” The British philosopher and linguistic analyst, J.L. Austin, was seminal in the development of speech-act theory. This is especially so with the posthumous publication of his lectures titled, How to do things with words.[2] Austin presented the latter at Harvard University in 1955. Later, Oswald Bayer applied speech-act theory to the proclamation of the gospel.[3] He observed that when viewed through…