Illocutionary act

Illocutionary act is a term in linguistics introduced by the philosopher John L. Austin in his investigation of the various aspects of speech acts. In Austin's framework, locution is what was said, illocution is what was meant, and perlocution is what happened as a result. For example, when somebody says "Is there any salt?" at the dinner table, the illocutionary act (the meaning conveyed) is effectively "please give me some salt" even though the locutionary act (the literal sentence) was to ask a question about the presence of salt. The perlocutionary act (the actual effect), was to cause somebody to hand over the salt.