Indirect Speech Acts

Nofsinger. R., Everyday Conversation, Sage, 1991

Lenny Shedletsky

Getting Meaning Out of A Conversation

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In talking to one another and deriving meaning from the talk, we rely upon a great deal of information besides the utterance itself.

Speakers communicate meanings beyond the

literal meanings of their words.

Can we be sure that what the speaker meant is what is understood?

No

Meaning is Constructed in a Variety of Ways

Propositional or linguistic meaning

Speech Act meaning

Indirect Meaning

Meaning that Goes Beyond

Communicators often fill in or expand on what was said

Indirect meaning makes use of situations

Hence, context requires our consideration

How do we explain how communicators derive indirect meaning?

Conversational Implicature

• Conversational Implicature is a theory about how we infer meanings from talk

• The speaker’s utterance implies some meaning

• The hearer infers the meaning• What is said and what is understood as the

meaning may be very far apart• The “surface” speech act and the understood

speech act may have an indirect connection--hence, an indirect speech act

Constructing Inferences

Grice proposed that we operate on a general principle called the cooperative principle

The cooperative principle proposes that we operate as if we are trying to cooperate with our conversational partners

We follow maxims or rules to cooperate

Maxims Constitute theThe Cooperative Principle

Maxim of strength:

Say enough!

Maxim of Parsimony:

Say no more than is necessary!

Maxim of Truth

Do not say anything that you believe to be false (don’t lie)!

Maxim of Evidence

Do not say anything for which you lack

adequate evidence!

Maxim of Relevance

Be relevant!

Maxim of Clarity

Avoid language that is unfamiliar to the recipient(s)!

From the Hearer’s Perspective

We generally assume that the speaker is trying to cooperate unless we have repeated evidence to the contrary

What Happens When the Speaker Violates a Maxim?

The recipient will attempt to interpret the utterance so as to have it meet the requirement of the maxim

And, at the same time, the speaker has constructed the utterance with the idea that the hearer can figure out (infer) the intended meaning

This is more than I can eat.It’s huge. Do you like Lobster, John?

Thanks. I’m full.

Indirect Speech Act

Context

How does the immediately surrounding talk influence the meaning of an utterance?

What happens to the lobster offer if we take out part of the utterance?

It’s huge.

Yes, it is.

Indirect Speech Act