LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION: A SCHEMA FOR SPEECH ACTS

Extensive work in the study of language has been stimulated by the work of Chomsky on grammar, Grice and Katz on meaning, and Austen and Searle on speech acts. Nevertheless, little has been done to integrate this topic into a general account of linguistic communication. Even though it is widely recognized that to communicate linguistically is more than just saying something---what is communicated is determined not merely by what is said. In my view a communicative intention has the peculiar feature that its fulfillment consists in its recognition. The speaker intends the hearer to recognize the point of his utterance not just through (1) content and (2) context but also because (3) the point is intended to be recognized. The inference is simplest in the literal case, but each case involves all three factors: content, context, and communicative intention. These factors require systematic explanation. Accordingly, I attempt to characterize precisely the nature of communicative intentions together with the nature of the inference the hearer makes in identifying them. Within the framework of this account people are offered a detailed classification of speech acts and the role of social conventions in the performance of speech acts.