scispace - formally typeset
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.

read more

Content maybe subject to copyright    Report

Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

Teaching email requests in the academic context: a focus on the role of corrective feedback

TL;DR: This paper examined whether giving corrective feedback on students' performance during pragmatics-focused activities leads to their subsequent improvement in producing and recognising pragmatically appropriate email requests in the above context.
Journal ArticleDOI

The implications of studying politeness in Spanish-speaking contexts: A discussion

TL;DR: The authors discuss the problem of using certain concepts (face, threats, mitigations and strategies of politeness) as methodological categories for the interpretation of communicative behaviours in situated interactions.
Journal ArticleDOI

Illocutionary constructions: (multiple source)-in-target metonymies, illocutionary ICMs, and specification links

TL;DR: This article revisits the notion of indirect speech acts (ISA) in the light of a weak formulation of the classical Literal Force Hypothesis and revise current theories of ISAs to overcome their limitations.
Journal ArticleDOI

An experimental investigation of the dilemma of delivering bad news.

TL;DR: The skilful use of implicit language is a solution to the dilemma of honest but not harsh communication of bad news and can deliver bad news honestly without being blunt by skilfully incorporating implicit language.
References
More filters
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 -