From Utterances to Speech Acts

210 Pages·2013·3.12 MB·English

by  Mikhail Kissine

From Utterances to Speech Acts
Mostofthetimeourutterancesareautomaticallyinterpretedasspeechacts:
asassertions,conjecturesandtestimonies; asorders,requestsandpleas;as
threats, offers and promises. Surprisingly, the cognitive correlates of this
essentialcomponentofhumancommunicationhavereceivedlittleattention.
Thisbookfillsthegapbyprovidingamodelofthepsychologicalprocesses
involvedininterpretingandunderstandingspeechacts.Thetheoryisframed
innaturalistictermsandissupportedbydataonlanguagedevelopmentand
on autism spectrum disorders. Mikhail Kissine does not presuppose any
specific background and addresses a crucial pragmatic phenomenon from
an interdisciplinary perspective. This is a valuable resource for academic
researchers andgraduate andundergraduate students inpragmatics, seman-
tics,cognitivelinguistics,psycholinguisticsandphilosophyoflanguage.
mikhail kissine is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the Universite´
Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). His next book, Imperatives, co-authored with
MarkJary,isforthcomingfromCambridgeUniversityPress.

From Utterances to Speech Acts
Mikhail Kissine
cambridgeuniversitypress
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©MikhailKissine2013
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithout
thewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2013
PrintedandboundintheUnitedKingdombytheMPGBooksGroup
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Kissine,Mikhail.
Fromutterancestospeechacts/MikhailKissine.
pages cm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-107-00976-9(Hardback)
1. Speechacts(Linguistics) 2. Oralcommunication. 3. Discourseanalysis.
4. Pragmatics. 5. Semantics. I. Title.
P95.55.K582013
4010.452–dc23
2012036514
ISBN978-1-107-00976-9Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceor
accuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredto
inthispublication,anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch
websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
Contents
List offigures pageviii
Acknowledgements ix
List ofabbreviations xi
Introduction 1
0.1 Motivation 1
0.2 Conventionalandnon-conventionalspeechacts 2
0.3 Thetwomainingredientsoftheaccount 4
0.4 Outlineofthebook 5
1 Austin’sdistinctions revisited 8
1.1 Austin’slevelsofmeaningandDavidson’sphilosophyofaction 9
1.2 Perlocutionaryactsandcausaleffects 12
1.3 Fromphatictolocutionaryacts 16
1.3.1 Phaticactsandsemanticcontents 16
1.3.2 Austinonrheticandlocutionaryacts 18
1.3.3 Locutionaryactsandpropositionalcontent 20
1.4 LocutionaryactsandexpressionsofIntentionalstates 22
1.5 Conclusion 29
2 Intentionalstates andlocutionary acts 31
2.1 Directionoffit 31
2.2 Dereanddedicto 34
2.3 PotentialityandIntentionalstates 39
2.4 Intentions 41
2.5 Potentialityinlanguage 45
2.5.1 Updatinginformationstates 45
2.5.2 Ashortexcursusonepistemicpossibility 49
2.5.3 Potentiality:apropertyoflocutionaryacts 50
2.5.4 Precautionarynotes 51
2.6 Functionsinlanguageandmind 52
2.6.1 Functions:directandderived 53
2.6.2 Functionsandcontext 56
2.6.3 Locutionaryandillocutionaryfunctions 57
2.7 FunctionalisomorphismbetweenlocutionaryactsandIntentionalstates 59
2.8 Conclusion 60
v
vi Contents
3 Constative speech acts 61
3.1 Influencingtheaddressee’sbeliefs 63
3.2 Constativespeechactsasreasonstobelieve 67
3.3 Whentheconstativeforceismissing 71
3.3.1 Irony 71
3.3.2 Platitudes 75
3.3.3 Soliloquies 76
3.4 Thefunctionofconstativeillocutionaryacts 78
3.5 Thecontentsofconstativeillocutionaryacts 80
3.5.1 Directversusindirect 80
3.5.2 Commitmenttotheperformanceversuscommitmenttothecontent 81
3.6 Trustandcommunication 83
3.7 Theoriginsoftruth-commitment 89
3.8 Assertionsandcommitment 92
3.9 Presuppositionaccommodation 96
3.10 Conclusion 100
4 Directive speech acts 102
4.1 Againstperlocutionaryaccounts:again 103
4.2 Directivespeechactsasreasonstoact 104
4.3 Directivespeechacts,potentialityandpossibility 106
4.4 Desirability 108
4.5 Indirectversussecondarydirectivespeechacts 111
4.5.1 Sentence-typesandillocutionaryforces 112
4.5.2 Primaryandindirectspeechacts 118
4.6 Whenthedirectiveforceismissing 122
4.7 Conclusion 124
5 Speech acts, autism spectrumdisordersand typical development 126
5.1 Autismspectrumdisorders:pragmaticsandmindreading 127
5.2 Varietiesoffalse-belieftasks 130
5.3 False-belieftasksandcognitiveflexibility 132
5.4 Perspective-shifting:immatureversusimpaired 136
5.4.1 Implicitbeliefattribution 136
5.4.2 Counterfactualreasoning 137
5.4.3 Pretence 138
5.4.4 Jointattention 138
5.5 Perspective-shiftingandcommunication 139
5.5.1 Constativespeechacts 139
5.5.2 Directivespeechacts 143
5.6 PragmaticsinASDs 144
5.7 Conclusion 147
6 Commissive speechacts 148
6.1 Conventionsandpromises 148
6.2 Asemanticsolution? 152
6.3 Explainingthecommitment 154
6.3.1 Commissivesversusfirst-persondirectives 154
6.3.2 Expressionofintentions 155
Contents vii
6.3.3 Predictionsandexpressionofintentions 156
6.3.4 Commitment 158
6.4 Threats 161
6.5 Cognitiveunderpinningsofcommissives 163
6.6 Conclusion 165
Conclusion 166
References 168
Index 190
Figures
1.1 Austin’s levels ofmeaning revisited page 30
2.1 Levelsof meaningsand their functions 58
3.1 Indirect and secondary speech acts 100
viii