CHAPTER PREVIEW

Following the treatment of external context in the previous chapter, this chapter considers the interpersonal context of linguistic action in which any utterance is placed.

Section 4.1 introduces the notion of illocutionary force, which refers to the different interpersonal functions or speech acts which a linguistic expression may be made to perform (stating, questioning, ordering, requesting, advising, warning, promising, etc.).

Section 4.2 considers the role of speaker's intention and hearer's inference in meaning: in general, the meaning of an expression can often be described as whatever it was that the speaker intended the hearer to understand in using the expression; the hearer's task, on this picture, is to make inferences about what this intention was.

In 4.3 we discuss the Gricean theory of implicature, which is the theory of how meanings may be implied rather than explicitly stated. In 4.4 and 4.5 we turn to an exploration of the principles which have been proposed as governing the operation of implicature in conversation. Section 4.6 considers an important alternative tradition in the analysis of interpersonal context, Relevance Theory, and 4.7 discusses, in general terms, the interrelation between semantics and pragmatics, the branch of linguistics in which the relations between language and context are specifically studied.

Interpersonal context: illocutionary force and speech acts

The relations between language and context are not limited to those in which a linguistic expression simply names or describes an already existing referent or state of affairs.