Who is credited with the distinction of locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary speech acts?

J.L. Austin, a British philosopher of language, introduced these concepts in his theory of speech acts. He categorized the acts performed when speaking into three types: Locutionary act: The actual act of saying something with a specific meaning. Illocutionary act: The intended function of the utterance (e.g., promising, ordering, questioning). Perlocutionary act: The effect the utterance has on the listener (e.g., persuading, frightening).