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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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References
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Journal Article

On Some Interactions of Syntax and Pragmatics

TL;DR: This paper attempts to describe, from the approach of mapping of syntax and pragmatics and through authentic examples, the specific forms and rules of expression showing the interaction between logical structure and surface structure in the process of derivative of semantics.
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Ambiguity Under Changing Contexts

TL;DR: Notions of disambiguation supporting a compositional interpretation of ambiguous expressions and reflecting intuitions about how sentences combine in discourse are investigated.

On Indirect Speech Acts

桂锐林
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use some examples to illustrate some functions and usage of indirect speech acts, which is a part of pragmatics and is essential for learners of language to know not only literal meaning of a sentence, but also its illocutionary act.