Reflection: An alternative approach to indirect speech acts from cognitive science

An attractive alternative approach to indirect speech acts, especially conventionally indirect speech acts, has been proposed by Thornburg and Panther (1997) and Panther and Thornburg (1998), and further developed by Pérez Hernández and Ruiz de Mendoza (2002). In their view, the identification of illocutionary force has its basis in conceptual metonymies, that is, concepts linked by association. Thus, by uttering a component of an illocutionary scenario a speaker enables the hearer to retrieve the illocutionary meaning for which the component stands (i.e. is metonymically linked, such as mentioning somebody’s ability to do a job enables the hearer to retrieve the associated illocutionary meaning of request). This, they plausibly claim, accounts for how indirect illocutions can be rapidly and efficiently retrieved by hearers. An illocutionary scenario is taken to be a generic knowledge organization structure, and hence has strong similarities with the schema-theoretic view of speech acts to be outlined. Importantly, Pérez Hernández and Ruiz de Mendoza (2002) broaden the basis of illocutionary scenarios beyond Searle’s felicity conditions to include interpersonal features. Specifically, they include the power relationship between the speakers, the cost/benefit to the speaker/hearer and the degree of optionality of the illocution, because of the role played by features such as in conceptualizing and interpreting the illocutionary act.2