Speech acts in context. Reprinted in M. Sbisà, Essays on Speech Acts and Other Topics in Pragmatics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023 (original) (raw)

Language & Communication, 2002

Abstract

This paper argues for an Austin-inspired conception of speech acts as context-changing social actions. It explores some ways of conceiving of context in order to determine how context should be defined in this framework. It observes that the context against which Austin assesses infelicities consists of aspects of the world, while according to other speech act theorists, starting from John Searle, felicity conditions require that speakers have certain intentions and other appropriate attitudes. It argues that the context of a speech act should be considered as constructed as opposed to merely given, limited as opposed to extendible in any direction, and objective as opposed to cognitive. It explores whether these claims might be incompatible with each other, concluding that they are consistent. Finally, it takes into consideration the context-changing role of speech acts and the difference between its illocutionary dimension and its perlocutionary one.

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