Indeterminacy as Indecision, Lecture II: Seeing through the Clouds

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (11) ◽  
pp. 617-642
Author(s):  
John MacFarlane ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Satisfactory Account ◽  
General Response ◽  
The Way

One approach to the problem is to keep the orthodox notion of a proposition but innovate in the theory of speech acts. A number of philosophers and linguists have suggested that, in cases of felicitous underspecification, a speaker asserts a “cloud” of propositions rather than just one. This picture raises a number of questions: what norms constrain a “cloudy assertion,” what counts as uptake, and how is the conversational common ground revised if it is accepted? I explore three different ways of answering these questions, due to Braun and Sider, Buchanan, and von Fintel and Gillies. I argue that none of them provide a good general response to the problem posed by felicitous underspecification. However, the problems they face point the way to a more satisfactory account, which innovates in the theory of content rather than the theory of speech acts.

Watching Birds and People

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-176
Author(s):  
Mikael Rothstein
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Personal Knowledge ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Good Working ◽  
Anthropological Field Work ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Way

This article explores ornithology as a hidden resource in anthropological field work. Relating experiences among the Penan forest nomads of Sarawak, Borneo, the author describes how his personal knowledge of bird life paved the way for good working relations, and even friendship, with the Penan. Representing two very different cultures simple communication between the scholar on duty and the Penan community was difficult indeed, but the birds provided a common ground that enabled the two parties to exchange experiences, knowledge and skills. In certain ways the author's fieldwork-based project relates to the Penan’s religious interpretation of birds, but the article is primarily concerned with the fact that a mutual understanding was created from this common ground, and that our thoughts on fieldwork preparations may be taken further by such experiences.

Speech Acts by the Governor Candidates of North Sumatera in Political Debates

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vidya Dwi Amalia Zati ◽  
Sumarsih Sumarsih ◽  
Lince Sihombing
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Direct Speech ◽  
Dominant Type ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
The Way ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

The objectives of the research were to describe the types of speech acts used in televised political debates of governor candidates of North Sumatera, to derive the dominant type of speech acts used in televised political debates of governor candidates of North Sumatera and to elaborate the way of five governor candidates of North Sumatera use speech acts in televised political debates. This research was conducted by applying descriptive qualitative research. The findings show that there were only four types of speech acts used in televised political debates, Debat Pemilukada Sumatera Utara and Uji Publik Cagub dan Cawagub Sumatera Utara, they were assertives, directives, commissives and expressives. The dominant type of speech acts used in both televised political debates was assertives, with 82 utterances or 51.6% in Debat Pemilukada Sumatera Utara and 36 utterances or 41.37% in Uji Publik Cagub dan Cawagub Sumatera Utara. The way of governor candidates of North Sumatera used speech acts in televised political debates is in direct speech acts, they spoke straight to the point and clearly in order to make the other candidates and audiences understand their utterances.   Keywords: Governor Candidate; Political Debate; Speech Acts

De Se Assertion

2018 ◽  
pp. 457-479
Author(s):  
Isidora Stojanovic
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
De Se ◽  
Essential Indexical ◽  
The Way

De se attitudes, that is, attitudes that we have about ourselves in a first-personal way, have long been recognized as interestingly different from other attitudes. However, speech acts and, in particular, assertions that we make about ourselves have barely begun to draw philosophers’ attention. This chapter discusses some recent proposals that aim to bridge the gap between the significance of the de se phenomena in thought and the way that we express those attitudes in language. Section 1 provides some background on the de se and the essential indexical. Section 2 surveys proposals that make use of centered contents in modeling assertion and communication. Section 3 discusses the main motivations for the idea that centered contents are not only the contents of de se attitudes but also of the corresponding assertions.

Lying and Fiction

2018 ◽  
pp. 302-314
Author(s):  
Emar Maier
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Semantic Framework ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
The Common ◽  
Maxim Of Quality

Lying and fiction both involve the deliberate production of statements that fail to obey Grice’s first Maxim of Quality (“do not say what you believe to be false”). The question thus arises if we can provide a uniform analysis for fiction and lies. This chapter discusses the similarities, but also some fundamental differences between lying and fiction. It argues that there is little hope for a satisfying account within a traditional truth-conditional semantic framework. Rather than immediately moving to a fully pragmatic analysis involving distinct speech acts of fiction-making and lying, the chapter first explores how far we get with the assumption that both are simply assertions, analyzed in a Stalnakerian framework, i.e., as proposals to update the common ground.

scholarly journals Direct and Indirect Directive Illocutionary Acts in the Movie “Penguin of Madagascar”

HUMANIS ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 253
Author(s):  
Gusti Alit Mahendra ◽  
I Gusti Ayu Gede Sosiowati ◽  
Ni Ketut Alit Ida Setianingsih
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Illocutionary Acts ◽  
Illocutionary Act ◽  
The Social ◽  
Context Of Situation ◽  
The Way ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

The study entitled “Direct and Indirect Directive Illocutionary Acts in the Movie Penguin of Madagascar” is aimed at identifying the direct and indirect directive types of illocutionary acts and explaining and analyzing the meaning of the utterances interpreted by the listeners. The data of this study were taken from the movie entitled Penguins of Madagascar, and it was chosen because of many utterances identified as directive of illocutionary acts. The observation and documentation methods were used in collecting the data since the data were obtained from the spoken source in the movie. The data were analyzed using the descriptive qualitative method since the purpose of this study is to analyze the social phenomena like speech acts. The first theory proposef by Bach and Harnish (1979: 47) is used to analyze the type of directive of illocutionary acts. The second theory, the context of situation proposed by Dell Hymes (1972, is used to analyze the meaning of directive of illocutionary acts that can be interpreted by the listeners. There are six types of directive of illocutionary act proposed by Bach and Harnish (1979). They are requestives, questions, requirements, permissives, prohibitives and advisories. In this study, several types of directive illocutionary were found in the movie, except the indirect question, and direct prohibitive. The way the listeners interpret the meaning depends on the context of situation.

Pragmatics

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Potts
Keyword(s):  
Computational Linguistics ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Context Dependence ◽  
Conversational Implicature ◽  
Linguistic Pragmatics ◽  
Primary Literature ◽  
High Level

This chapter reviews core empirical phenomena and technical concepts from linguistic pragmatics, including context dependence, common ground, indexicality, conversational implicature, presupposition, and speech acts. It seeks to identify unifying themes among these concepts, provide a high-level guide to the primary literature, and relate the phenomena to issues in computational linguistics.

Linguistic expressions as cultural units

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-145
Author(s):  
Elke Diedrichsen
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Communicative Interaction ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Culturally Based ◽  
Linguistic Conventions ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract The paper argues in favor of including cultural aspects in the description of communicative interaction. According to Eco (1976), a linguistic sign is a cultural unit. In order to use it properly, a speaker relies on communicative experience with this unit within a culture (Wittgenstein 1960; Feilke 1996, 1998; Everett 2012). We expand the notion of ‘cultural unit’ by including internet memes found in social media (Shifman 2013, 2014; Diedrichsen 2013a, 2013b, 2019a, 2019b). The term builds on Richard Dawkins’ 1976 definition of a ‘meme’ as a unit that is the cultural equivalent of a biological gene. The paper proposes three knowledge sources for the production and comprehension of these units. The first is semiotic knowledge, the second is common ground knowledge (Clark 1996), and the third knowledge source involves culturally shared cognitive conceptualizations on which word meanings and other linguistic conventions are founded (Sharifian 2003, 2011, 2015, 2017). These three knowledge sources are established through daily interactions and learning processes within a culture (Kecskés and Zhang 2009). The paper characterizes the application of these three knowledge sources for a variety of sign uses. We will also show that a cultural view on pragmatics, as suggested by Sharifian (2017), serves to describe speech acts by identifying their culturally based source. The paper therefore demonstrates that the inclusion of cultural knowledge enables a perspective on communication that goes beyond the analysis of spoken and written words within communities of speakers, as it includes emerging means of communicative interaction in the digital age.

scholarly journals Die Areopagusrede (Hand. 17:22-31) – ’n verkenning van homiletiese elemente

2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J.H. Venter
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
The Body ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
The Way

The Areopagus speech (Acts 17:22-31) – an exploration of homiletical elements In this article certain guidelines are developed from a selection of definitions for preaching and also from relevant data about the process of compiling and evaluating sermons. The aim in developing these guidelines was to establish parameters for the exploration of the Areopagus speech. It was established that the way in which listeners is addressed, and also the link-up with the situation of the listeners to the speech, can be considered as important homiletical elements. Together with these elements the structure of the speech as well as the transitions in the speech can be regarded as major homiletical elements in the body of the sermon. The trinitarian revelation of God in this speech and also the balance between indicative, imperative and promise mark this speech as a sermon. The elements of cohesion and progression are perceptibly present in this speech with the result that the introduction (God creates and grants life) links up well with the climax (eternal life through the resurrection of Christ).

Strategic Differences: Seneca and Plutarch on Controlling Anger

Mnemosyne ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
The Way

AbstractIn a span of less than a century, Seneca and Plutarch both wrote works arguing against anger. This article studies these texts as speech acts, that is, as discourses through which the authors, by various means, seek to produce a certain effect in their readers. The comparison of several parallel passages from Seneca's On Anger and Plutarch's On the Control of Anger with regard to genre, philosophical technicality, rhetorical strategies, and specific argumentation brings to the fore how Seneca, in his plea for the eradication of anger, instills a concept of virtue substantially different from what most Romans would be familiar with, whereas Plutarch promotes the control of anger as an important part of the way a gentleman presents himself in a civilised society.

Dialog und Heteroglossie im Faunus von Sibylla Schwarz

Daphnis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1-02) ◽  
pp. 26-43
Author(s):  
Paola Bozzi
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Female Voice ◽  
Pastoral Work ◽  
Literary Style ◽  
Search For Self ◽  
Male Discourse ◽  
Difficult Dialogue ◽  
The Way

In her pastoral work Faunus, Sibylla Schwarz reproduces the male discourse exactly, but with a female voice, which is, therefore, different and new. The author knows how to stylize different kinds of texts and tailor them to different speech acts. In the search for self-assurance and the suitable literary style, she stages a difficult dialogue of perspectives and voices. This paper investigates the extent to which her own and another’s voice interpenetrate, and the way in which meaning positions of speaker, addressee, and of what is discussed are expressed.

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