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Journal ArticleDOI

Indirect Speech Acts

Nicholas Asher, +1 more
- 01 Jul 2001 - 
- Vol. 128, Iss: 1, pp 183-228
TLDR
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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Journal ArticleDOI

Sociopragmatics of Code Switching and Code Mixing in Reconciliation Case Proceedings: Shariah Courts of Northern Nigeria

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored some sociopragmatic aspects of the Hausa natives (Northern Nigeria, West Africa) Shariah reconciliation Courts judicial discourse, and found that code switching and code mixing (CSCM) appeared/employed constantly by almost all classes of speakers during RCP.

The Speech Acts Recognition of ESP Students with and without Body Language

TL;DR: In this article, two listening tests are designed which consist of various types of speech acts in the audio that suit ESP university students' level of English language, and the results validated listening and watching the video since the computed value of the t-test (1.98) is higher than the tabulated t-value (1,69) at (29) degree of freedom and (0.05) level of significance.

A pragmatic tutorial dialogue system: design, implementation and evaluation in a health sciences domain

TL;DR: A rationale is presented for revisiting tutorial dialogue systems in the context of large-class teaching and the design, build and evaluate of a new tutorial dialogue system for the cardiovas-
Journal ArticleDOI

‘Seeing’ is ‘trying’: The relation of visual perception to attemptive modality in the world's languages

TL;DR: The authors examined the relationship between the concepts of "seeing" and "attempting/trying" in various languages and proposed a specific grammaticalization mechanism responsible for producing this semantic relationship.
References
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Book

How to do things with words

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
Book ChapterDOI

Logic and conversation

H. P. Grice
- 12 Dec 1975 - 
Book ChapterDOI

Logic and Conversation

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.
Book

Head-driven phrase structure grammar

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.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Generative Lexicon

Christiane Fellbaum, +1 more
- 01 Sep 1997 -