1. basic sentence type in language is declarative (i.e. a statement or
assertion)
2. principal use of language is to describe states of affairs (by using
statements)
3. the meaning of utterances can e described in terms of their truth or
falsity
What is a speech act?
Hearers have to coordinate linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge to interpret
a speaker's intended meaning
Austin found utterances that
A. do not describe or report or constate anything at all, are not true or
false
B. the uttering of a sentence is the doing of an action which would normally be
described as saying something
Two observations: first, not all sentences are statements, second, much of
conversation is made up of questions, exclamations, commands, and expressions
of wishes.
He called the latter performatives.
With performatives Austin suggested not to ask whether those sentences are true
or not, but to ask whether they work or not
* Excuse me!
* How much?
* Are you crazy?
* I promise you to take a taxi home.
=> grammatically seen as statement, but it cannot be answered by true or false