Asking and Ordering
Peter Hanks · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2015
This chapter looks beyond predicative propositions to the other two kinds of propositions—interrogative and imperative. In an interrogative proposition a subject asks whether an object has a property. In an imperative proposition a subject tries to make it the case that an object has a property. This is to distinguish these kinds of propositions in terms of the combinatory acts out of which they are constituted. Another way to distinguish them is in terms of their satisfaction conditions. Only predicative propositions have truth conditions; interrogative propositions have answer-hood conditions, and imperative propositions have fulfillment conditions. Another related method of distinction is in terms of direction of fit; predicative propositions are word-to-world, interrogative propositions are word-to-word, and imperative propositions are world-to-word. And there are other ways of distinguishing these propositions. This chapter clarifies these distinctions and uses them to draw some implications for the theory of speech acts.