The easiest way to show what Austin means is also through a number of examples. If a referee dressed in black on a
football pitch shows a player a yellow card, then he has warned the player who committed the violent tackles against
the rival should watch out his behavior, otherwise, he will be stopped to play and be sent off to the bench if he
commits another forbidden dangerous foul and get a red card as a consequence. If a hearer says, ‘I beg your pardon’,
he just mean he didn’t follow what the speaker said and thus asks the speaker to repeat the former unheard voice
again. If a vicar says, ‘I now pronounce you man and wife’ in a church, then he announced the marriage of the
couple. These are examples of acts – warning, requesting and marrying. Initially this distinction may seem
superficial, yet on careful inspection there is a genuine difference. Consider another example from Saul:
Suppose George W Bush appears on TV and utters the words ‘I hereby resign’. This act may have many
perlocutionary effects. The perlocutionary acts might include making Democrats happy, making Republicans
nervous, shocking the world, and selling lots of newspapers. There is just one illocutionary act, however, and this is
the act simply of resigning the presidency of the United States. Like many other acts, not just anyone can perform it.
(Saul 2003, p.86,)