Arguing for Different Types of Speech Acts
Christian Erik J Kock · Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) · 2009
Assertives have a word-to-world 'direction-of-fit': their illocutionary point is that the word should fit the world.Directives and commissives have a world-to-word direction-of-fit: their illocutionary point is to make the world fit the word.Arguments in politics and practical argumentation generally are often about directives or commissives, and many of these cannot meaningfully be reconstructed as assertives.Nevertheless, many theorists of argumentation proceed, tacitly or explicitly, as if all arguments must be about assertives, thereby obfuscating matters.