Table Of ContentTHE ORGANIZING PROPERTY OF COMMUNICATION
Pragmatics & Beyond
New Series
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Pau l O. Takahara (Kobe City University of Foreign Studies)
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Teun A. Van Dijk (University of Amsterdam); Richard Watts (University of Bern)
65
François Cooren
The Organizing Property of Communication
THE ORGANIZING
PROPERTY OF
COMMUNICATION
FRANÇOIS COOREN
University at Albany,
State University of New York
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8 American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Portions of Chapter 5 first appeared as “Actes de langage et argumentation.” Revue
philosophique de Louvain 97(3) (1997), 517–544, and “Actes de langage et sémio-
narrativité. Une analyse sémiotique des indirections.” Semiotica 116(2/4) (1997):
229–273, used by permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cooren, François.
The organizing property of communication / François Cooren.
p. cm. -- (Pragmatics & beyond, ISSN 0922-842X ; new ser. 65)
Based on the author’s thesis (doctoral--Université de Montréal, 1995).
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Speech acts (Linguistics) 2. Oral communication--Philosophy. 3. Semiotics. I. Title II.
Series.
P95.55.C66 19 99
306.44--dc21 99-052671
ISBN 90 272 5079 0 (Eur.) / 1 55619 943 0 (US) (alk. paper)
© 2000 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. (cid:127) P.O.Box 75577 (cid:127) 1070 AN Amsterdam (cid:127) The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America (cid:127) P.O.Box 27519 (cid:127) Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 (cid:127) USA
À mes parents, Jean et Paule Cooren
“J’ai oublié mon parapluie.”
Nietzsche, Le Gai Savoir. Fragment, number 12, 175, p. 457, quoted by
Jacques Derrida, in Éperons. Les styles de Nietzsche (1978, pp. 103–113)
“J’avais la phrase dans les mains, comme une grenade avant l’éclatement.”
Léo Ferré, “Le Style,” in La mauvaise graine (1993, p. 215)
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Preface xiii
by James R. Taylor
Introduction 1
PART I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 9
Chapter 1: Speech Act Theory 11
1.1 Austin, or When Saying Becomes Doing 13
1.1.1 Constative vs. Performative: Success and Limits 14
1.1.2 Locution vs. Illocution and Perlocution: An Unfinished
Reflection 16
1.2 Searle, or the Systematization of Speech Acts 18
1.2.1 The Constitutive Rules and the Principle of Expressibility 19
1.2.2 Utterance, Propositional and Illocutionary Acts 20
1.2.3 The Meaning of Illocutionary Acts and the Problem of
Uptake 22
1.2.4 Typology of Speech Acts 25
1.2.5 Vanderveken’s Contribution 28
1.2.6 Indirect Speech Acts 30
Chapter 2: Critiques Addressed toward Speech Act Theory 35
2.1 Derrida: The Iterability of Speech Acts 36
2.2 Pierre Livet: The Undecidability of Speech Acts and the Virtual
Community 42
2.3 Bach and Harnish: A Change of Perspective 45
2.3.1 The Hearer’s Interpretive Position 34
2.3.2 The Speech Act Schema (SAS) and the Debate with Searle 46
2.3.3 What We Can Learn From This Controversy 50
2.4 Pierre Bourdieu: Speech Acts and Institution 51
Conclusion 55
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 3: Narrativity and Speech Acts 57
3.1 Greimas’ Narrative Theory 58
3.1.1 The Basic Tension: Subject vs. Object 60
3.1.2 The Two Basic Utterances: Utterances Describing a State
vs. Utterances of Doing 60
3.1.2.1 Utterances Describing a State 61
3.1.2.2 Utterances of Doing 63
3.1.3 The Different Types of Communication of Objects 65
3.1.3.1 Communication Involving Only One Object 65
3.1.3.2 Communication Involving Two Objects 67
3.1.4 The Narrative Program and the Actantial Structure, or How
to Organize our Universe 68
3.1.4.1 Modal Objects and Objects of Value 69
3.1.4.2 Narrative Program and Actantial Roles 71
3.2 Narrativity and Speech Acts 74
Conclusion 78
PART II. TOWARD A MODEL OF THE ORGANIZING PROPERTY OF
COMMUNICATION 79
Chapter 4: The Semiotic Model of Illocutionary Acts 81
4.1 Redefinition of the Illocutionary Acts: Texts as Machines 81
4.2 Typology of Illocutionary Acts 88
4.2.1 The Primitive Dimensions of Speech Acts 92
4.2.1.1 The Productive Dimension of Speech Acts 92
4.2.1.2 The Attributive Dimension of Speech Acts 97
4.2.2 The Illocutionary Transformations 99
4.2.2.1 Assertive and Informative Transformations 100
4.2.2.2 Modal Illocutionary Transformations 104
4.2.2.3 Objective Illocutionary Transformations 112
4.2.3 Summary of the Main Points 122
4.3 The Ideal Conditions of Production of Speech Acts 124
4.3.1 The Ideal Conditions of Assertives and Informatives 125
4.3.2 The Ideal Conditions of Modal Illocutionary Acts 128
4.3.2.1 The Ideal Conditions of Directives 128
4.3.2.2 The Ideal Conditions of Accreditives 131
4.3.2.3 The Ideal Conditions of Commissives 132
TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
4.3.3 The Ideal Conditions of Objectives 132
4.3.3.1 The Ideal Conditions of Declaratives 132
4.3.3.2 The Ideal Conditions of Expressives 134
4.3.4 Summary of the Main Points 134
Chapter 5: The Semiotic Model of Perlocutionary Acts 137
5.1 Perlocutionary Transformations and Conditions of Satisfaction 137
5.2 A Semiotic Analysis of Indirectness 142
5.2.1 Indirect Directives 142
5.2.2 Indirect Accreditives 146
5.2.3 Indirect Commissives 149
5.2.4 Indirect Declaratives 150
5.2.5 Indirect Expressives 151
5.2.6 Summary of the Main Points 152
5.3 The Rhetorical and Procedural Form of Perlocutionary
Transformations 154
5.3.1 Rhetoric as the Discursive Art of Perlocutionary
Transformation 155
5.3.1.1 The Two Techniques of Rhetorical Transformations:
Liaisons and Dissociations 157
5.3.1.2 The Perlocutionary Rhetorical Transformation and
the Liaison/Dissociation Couple 161
5.3.2 Procedures as Silent Rhetoric 165
5.5 Summary of the Main Points 168
Chapter 6: The Organizing Property of Communication 171
6.1 Bruno Latour and Michel Callon: Interobjectivity and Translation
as the Foundations of Collectives 171
6.1.1 Latour and Interobjectivity 172
6.1.1.1 Interactionism Applies to Monkeys 172
6.1.1.2 The Nature of Framed Interaction: A Travel in Space
and Time 173
6.1.1.3 Complex vs. Complicated Interactions 175
6.1.1.4 Objects as the Cement of Society 176
6.1.2 Callon and the Process of Translation 183
6.1.2.1 The Problematization Phase 183
6.1.2.2 The Interessement Phase 184
x TABLE OF CONTENTS
6.1.2.3 The Enrolment Phase 185
6.1.2.4 The Mobilization Phase 185
6.1.2.5 Translation and Treason 187
6.2 Speech Acts as Interactoriality and Translation 187
6.2.1 The Directives and Commissives or How to Start a
Narrative 191
6.2.2 The Accreditives or the Process of Translation 196
6.2.3 The Declaratives or the Restance of Narratives 205
6.2.4 Acceptance, Sanction and Networks of Influence 208
Conclusion 217
Notes 223
References 243
Author Index 255
Subject Index 259
