20世纪初,西方出现了研究语言学的热潮,英国哲学家奥斯汀提出的言语行为理论是其中一项重大的突破。他认为说话本身就是一种行为,语言学研究的对象不应是词和句子,而应是通过词和句子所完成的行为。美国语言学家塞尔系统地修改了言语行为理论,除了认同言语行为是语言的最小单位,还发展了奥斯汀的观点,并提出了“间接言语行为理论”。 At the beginning of the 20th century, there appeared an upsurge in the study of linguistics in the west. One of the major breakthroughs was the speech act theory put forward by the Austrian philosopher Austin. He believes that the speech itself is a kind of behavior, linguistic research should not be the object of words and sentences, but through the words and sentences done by the behavior. American linguist Selle systematically modified the theory of speech act, in addition to recognizing that speech act is the smallest unit of language, and also developed Austen’s point of view and proposed the theory of indirect speech act.