How to Do Things with Words

“Immensely worth reading… What is made available here is a choice work by one of the most acute and original minds that England has produced in our time… The myth that Oxford philosophers in general, and Austin in particular, do nothing but examine the details of ordinary linguistic usage should be exploded once and for all by this new book.”—The Times Literary Supplement

“Austin had an extraordinarily keen ear for the subtleties of English and a remarkable sensitivity to the aptness of one expression as opposed to another in a given linguistic situation. To read him is not only a pleasure; it is also to learn much about English and to gain a new respect for its proper use.”—The Massachusetts Review