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Journal ArticleDOI

Indirect Speech Acts

01 Jul 2001-Synthese (Kluwer Academic Publishers)-Vol. 128, Iss: 1, pp 183-228
TL;DR: It is shown how a formal semantictheory of discourse interpretation can be used to define speech acts and to avoid murky issues concerning the metaphysics of action.
Abstract: In this paper, we address several puzzles concerning speech acts,particularly indirect speech acts. We show how a formal semantictheory of discourse interpretation can be used to define speech actsand to avoid murky issues concerning the metaphysics of action. Weprovide a formally precise definition of indirect speech acts, includingthe subclass of so-called conventionalized indirect speech acts. Thisanalysis draws heavily on parallels between phenomena at the speechact level and the lexical level. First, we argue that, just as co-predicationshows that some words can behave linguistically as if they're `simultaneously'of incompatible semantic types, certain speech acts behave this way too.Secondly, as Horn and Bayer (1984) and others have suggested, both thelexicon and speech acts are subject to a principle of blocking or ``preemptionby synonymy'': Conventionalized indirect speech acts can block their`paraphrases' from being interpreted as indirect speech acts, even ifthis interpretation is calculable from Gricean-style principles. Weprovide a formal model of this blocking, and compare it withexisting accounts of lexical blocking.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results show that in some ways, liars are less forthcoming than truth tellers, and they tell less compelling tales, and their stories include fewer ordinary imperfections and unusual contents.
Abstract: Do people behave differently when they are lying compared with when they are telling the truth? The combined results of 1,338 estimates of 158 cues to deception are reported. Results show that in some ways, liars are less forthcoming than truth tellers, and they tell less compelling tales. They also make a more negative impression and are more tense. Their stories include fewer ordinary imperfections and unusual contents. However, many behaviors showed no discernible links, or only weak links, to deceit. Cues to deception were more pronounced when people were motivated to succeed, especially when the motivations were identity relevant rather than monetary or material. Cues to deception were also stronger when lies were about transgressions.

2,188 citations


Cites background from "Indirect Speech Acts"

  • ...However, others who have discussed immediacy and related constructs have included other cues (e.g., Brown & Levinson, 1987; Fleming, 1994; Fleming & Rudman, 1993; Holtgraves, 1986; Searle, 1975)....

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01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: The handbook of pragmatics as mentioned in this paper is a handbook for pragmatism, which is used in many of the works mentioned in this article. کتابخانه دیجیتال شاپور اهواز
Abstract: The handbook of pragmatics , The handbook of pragmatics , کتابخانه دیجیتال جندی شاپور اهواز

758 citations

Book
04 Mar 2019
TL;DR: The theory of macrostructures as mentioned in this paper is the result of research carried out during the previous 10 years in the domains of literary theory, text grammar, the general theory of discourse, pragmatics, and the cognitive psychology of discourse processing.
Abstract: Macrostructures are higher-level semantic or conceptual structures that organize the ‘local’ microstructures of discourse, interaction, and their cognitive processing. They are distinguished from other global structures of a more schematic nature, which we call superstructures. Originally published in 1980, the theory of macrostructures outlined in this book is the result of research carried out during the previous 10 years in the domains of literary theory, text grammar, the general theory of discourse, pragmatics, and the cognitive psychology of discourse processing. The presentation of the theory is systematic but informal and at this stage was not intended to be fully formalized.

583 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article explored the syntactic forms speakers use when making requests and found that modal verbs are most common in ordinary conversation, whereas I wonder if is most frequent in requests made to the doctor.
Abstract: In this article, we explore the syntactic forms speakers use when making requests. An initial investigation of ordinary telephone calls between family and friends and out-of-hours calls to the doctor showed a difference in the distribution of modal verbs (e.g., Can you …), and requests prefaced by I wonder if. Modals are most common in ordinary conversation, whereas I wonder if … is most frequent in requests made to the doctor. This distributional difference seemed to be supported by calls from private homes to service organizations in which speakers also formatted requests as I wonder if. Further investigation of these and other corpora suggests that this distributional pattern is related not so much with the sociolinguistic speech setting but rather with speakers' orientations to known or anticipated contingencies associated with their request. The request forms speakers select embody, or display, their understandings of the contingencies associated with the recipient's ability to grant the request.

531 citations


Cites background from "Indirect Speech Acts"

  • ...…the surface form and literal meaning of some utterances and on the other hand their illocutionary force (as it is generally termed; Austin, 1962; Searle, 1975) as requesting, one theme in the literature has been the inferencing rules by which recipients understand the request that is embedded…...

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  • ...Early research into requests and indirectness has recognized these forms (save imperatives) as conventional request forms (e.g., Searle, 1975; Ervin-Tripp, 1976)....

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  • ...Both might be considered indirect, and additionally, we cannot find I wonder if listed as a request form in any published reports of measures of politeness—in fact, the only place we find it cited in the literature as a request form is in Searle (1975)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a frame-based view of politeness is proposed, which combines the traditional and post-modern views in a three-layered schema addressing politeness phenomena at different levels.
Abstract: Politeness research to date has generally adopted one of two views: the “traditional” view based on the dual premises of Grice’s Co-operative Principle and speech act theory (Lakoff 1973, Brown and Levinson 1987 [1978], Leech 1983), or the “post-modern” view, which rejects these premises and substitutes them by an emphasis on participants’ own perceptions of politeness (politeness1) and on the discursive struggle over politeness (Eelen 2001, Mills 2003, Watts 2003). Contrasting these two views, this article considers not only their points of disagreement, but, crucially, points where the two views coincide, bringing to light their common underlying assumptions. It then goes on to show how, departing from these common assumptions, a third direction for politeness studies, the “frame-based” view, is possible. Following an outline of the frame-based view, it is suggested that this fits in with the traditional and the post-modern views in a three-layered schema addressing politeness phenomena at different levels

275 citations

References
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Book
01 Jan 1962
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented a series of lectures with the following topics: Lecture I * Lecture II* Lecture III * Lectures IV* Lectures V * LectURE VI * LectURES VI * LII * LIII * LIV * LVI * LIX
Abstract: * Lecture I * Lecture II * Lecture III * Lecture IV * Lecture V * Lecture VI * Lecture VII * Lecture VIII * Lecture IX * Lecture X * Lecture XI * Lecture XII

15,492 citations


"Indirect Speech Acts" refers background in this paper

  • ...” Illocutionary acts (Austin, 1962) include things like informing, promising, asking, ordering, warning etc; and they are realised in performing locutionary acts (i....

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  • ...Illocutionary acts (Austin 1962) include things like informing, promising, asking, ordering, warning etc; and they are realised in performing locutionary acts (i.e., making utterances)....

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  • ...The Theory of Alignment for Relational Speech Acts Austin (1962) and Searle (1969) align sentence mood and other grammatical features to illocutionary acts and goals....

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Book ChapterDOI

13,767 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: For instance, Grice was interested in Quine's logical approach to language, although he differed from Quine over certain specific specific questions, such as the viability of the distinction between analytic and synthetic statements.
Abstract: As Grice’s enthusiasm for ordinary language philosophy became increasingly qualified during the 1950s, his interest was growing in the rather different styles of philosophy of language then current in America. Recent improvements in communications had made possible an exchange of ideas across the Atlantic that would have been unthinkable before the war. W. V. O. Quine had made a considerable impression at Oxford during his time as Eastman Professor. Grice was interested in Quine’s logical approach to language, although he differed from him over certain specific questions, such as the viability of the distinction between analytic and synthetic statements. Quine, who was visiting England for a whole year, and who brought with him clothes, books and even provisions in the knowledge that rationing was still in force, travelled by ship.1 However, during the same decade the rapid proliferation of passenger air travel enabled movement of academics between Britain and America for even short stays and lecture tours. Grice himself made a number of such visits, and was impressed by the formal and theory-driven philosophy he encountered. Most of all he was impressed by the work of Noam Chomsky.

6,984 citations

Book
01 Jan 1994
TL;DR: This book presents the most complete exposition of the theory of head-driven phrase structure grammar, introduced in the authors' "Information-Based Syntax and Semantics," and demonstrates the applicability of the HPSG approach to a wide range of empirical problems.
Abstract: This book presents the most complete exposition of the theory of head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG), introduced in the authors' "Information-Based Syntax and Semantics." HPSG provides an integration of key ideas from the various disciplines of cognitive science, drawing on results from diverse approaches to syntactic theory, situation semantics, data type theory, and knowledge representation. The result is a conception of grammar as a set of declarative and order-independent constraints, a conception well suited to modelling human language processing. This self-contained volume demonstrates the applicability of the HPSG approach to a wide range of empirical problems, including a number which have occupied center-stage within syntactic theory for well over twenty years: the control of "understood" subjects, long-distance dependencies conventionally treated in terms of "wh"-movement, and syntactic constraints on the relationship between various kinds of pronouns and their antecedents. The authors make clear how their approach compares with and improves upon approaches undertaken in other frameworks, including in particular the government-binding theory of Noam Chomsky.

3,600 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Sep 1997-Language

3,117 citations