From Speech Acts to Market Acts: Linguistics Meets Economics

Abstract

This article examines how language functions as economic action by tracing the movement from speech acts—promises, warnings, commitments, and declarations—to market acts such as contracting, pricing, investing, and policy response. Building on Speech Act Theory (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969) and insights from behavioral economics on framing and bounded rationality (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979), the study argues that economic discourse does not merely describe markets but helps constitute them. Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines pragmatic analysis, discourse and metaphor analysis, and selected empirical findings from finance and communication studies, the article identifies key linguistic mechanisms that shape economic behavior: modality and hedging, evaluative tone, implicature and indirectness in negotiation, and metaphorical and narrative framing in media and policy communication. Evidence from textual studies of corporate reporting and market sentiment suggests that systematic patterns of language predict or amplify market movements, especially under uncertainty. The article concludes with practical implications for transparent financial communication, credible policy signaling, and education in critical economic literacy, and outlines future research directions for multilingual and digital market settings.