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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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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

The effects of tutor expertise in engineering writing: a linguistic analysis of writing tutors' comments

TL;DR: This study examines the topics and politeness strategies of tutors' comments, investigating how non-expertise in engineering writing decreases the effectiveness of Tutors' interactions with engineering students.
Dissertation

Criticizing and responding to criticism in a foreign language: A study of Vietnamese learners of English

TL;DR: This paper examined pragmatic development in the use of criticizing and responding to criticism by a group of Vietnamese EFL learners with a view to shedding light on the pragmatic properties of these speech acts.
Journal ArticleDOI

A Conversational Approach to the Interaction With Web Services

TL;DR: A conversational model supporting the management of long‐lasting interactions where several messages have to be exchanged before the service is completed and is inspired from the research developed in Computational Linguistics and in the area of Multi‐Agent Systems.
Journal ArticleDOI

Non-observance of Gricean maxims in family dinner table conversation

TL;DR: In this paper, the issue of indirect speech and implication in family dinner conversations, viewed from a Gricean perspective, was addressed, with 19 families' dinner conversations in 19 families were video recorded.
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 -