'This small but tightly packed volume is easily the most substantial discussion of speech acts since John Austin's How To Do Things With Words and one of the most important contributions to the philosophy of language in recent decades.'--Philosophical Quarterly

Part I. A Theory of Speech Acts: 1. Methods and scope
 2. expressions, meaning and speech acts
 3. The structure of illocutionary acts
 4. Reference as a speech act
 5. Predication
 Part II. Some Applications of the Theory: 6. Three fallacies in contemporary philosophy
 7. Problems of reference
 8. Deriving 'ought' from 'is'
 Index.