Speech Acts and Truth-Conditional Meaning
Manfred Krifka, Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft · 2001
1.1 Illocutionary Force and Truth Conditions Truth-conditional meaning and speech acts, classical view (cf. Stenius (1967), Searle (1969)): (1) Illocutionary Force Indicator (Truth-Conditional Expression) = Speech Act (2) a. Al made pasta. ASSERT({w | Al made pasta in w}) b. Make pasta! COMM({w | Adressee makes pasta in w}) c. Did Al make pasta? QUEST({w | Al made pasta in w}) d. Who made pasta? QUEST({{w | x made pasta in w} | x is a person}) e. Did Al make pasta? QUEST({w | Al made pasta in w}, {w | Al didn’t make pasta in w}) • The truth-conditional expression (“sentence radical”) is a proposition or another truthconditional or perhaps a referring expression (Searle: Hurrah for Manchester United). • The Illocutionary Force Indicator (“sentence mood marker”) specifies what is done with the truth-conditional expression in a communicative game.