The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Indirect speech acts
Abstract
INTRODUCTION The simplest cases of meaning are those in which the speaker utters a sentence and means exactly and literally what he says. In such cases the speaker intends to produce a certain illocutionary effect in the hearer, and he intends to produce this effect by getting the hearer to recognize his intention to produce it, and he intends to get the hearer to recognize this intention in virtue of the hearer's knowledge of the rules that govern the utterance of the sentence. But, notoriously, not all cases of meaning are this simple: In hints, insinuations, irony, and metaphor – to mention a few examples – the speaker's utterance meaning and the sentence meaning come apart in various ways. One important class of such cases is that in which the speaker utters a sentence, means what he says, but also means something more. For example, a speaker may utter the sentence “I want you to do it” by way of requesting the hearer to do something. The utterance is incidentally meant as a statement, but it is also meant primarily as a request, a request made by way of making a statement. In such cases a sentence that contains the illocutionary force indicators for one kind of illocutionary act can be uttered to perform, in addition , another type of illocutionary act.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 301–400 of 1,394
Conversation in information-seeking contexts: A test of an analytical framework
Solomon, P. J. (1997) · Library & Information Science Research · doi:10.1016/s0740-8188(97)90014-1 · Cited by 50
Davis, W. A. (2007) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2007.05.006 · Cited by 50
Characterizing Discourse Among Undergraduate Researchers in an Inquiry-Based Community of Practice
Donath, L., Spray, R., Thompson, N. S., et al. (2005) · Journal of Engineering Education · doi:10.1002/j.2168-9830.2005.tb00868.x · Cited by 50
Bosco, F. M., Gabbatore, I., Angeleri, R., Zettin, M., & Parola, A. (2018) · Journal of Communication Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2018.05.002 · Cited by 51
Methodological Remarks on Speech Act Theory
Wunderlich, D. (1980) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-009-8964-1_14 · Cited by 52
Pragmatics in teacher education for nonnative‐speaking teachers: A consciousness‐raising approach
Rose, K. R. (1997) · Language Culture and Curriculum · doi:10.1080/07908319709525246 · Cited by 49
A Conversational Approach to the Interaction With Web Services
Ardissono, L., Petrone, G., & Segnan, M. (2004) · Computational Intelligence · doi:10.1111/j.0824-7935.2004.00261.x · Cited by 49
Two constraints on speech act ambiguity
Hinkelman, E., & Allen, J. F. (1989) · Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) · doi:10.3115/981623.981649 · Cited by 49
Literal meaning and figurative language
Gibbs, R. W., Buchalter, D. L., Moise, J. F., & Farrar, W. T. (1993) · Discourse Processes · doi:10.1080/01638539309544846 · Cited by 48
An Experimental Study of Neg-Raising Inferences in Korean
Lee, S., & Hong, S. J. (2015) · Language, cognition and mind · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-17464-8_11 · Cited by 48
What are tweeters doing: recognizing speech acts in twitter
Zhang, R., Gao, D., & Li, W. (2011) · Cited by 48
Request strategies in Indonesian
Hassall, T. (2015) · Pragmatics Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) · doi:10.1075/prag.9.4.02has · Cited by 50
Intonation and speech act type
Geluykens, R. (1987) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/0378-2166(87)90091-9 · Cited by 48
Towards a formal theory of communication for multiagent systems
Singh, M. P. (1991) · Cited by 48
Grammar, society, and the speech act: Renewing the connections
Thibault, P. J., & van Leeuwen, T. (1996) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/0378-2166(95)00058-5 · Cited by 47
Intention(ality) and the Conceptualization of Communication in Pragmatics
Haugh, M. (2009) · Australian Journal of Linguistics · doi:10.1080/07268600802516301 · Cited by 48
Manifestations of Relationship Conceptualizations in Conversation
Knobloch, L. K., & Solomon, D. H. (2003) · Human Communication Research · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2003.tb00853.x · Cited by 47
Interpretive approaches to organizational discourse
Heracleous, L. (2006) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511488573.003 · Cited by 47
Mind Your p's and q's: The Role of Content and Context in Some Uses of and, or, and If
Fillenbaum, S. (1977) · The Psychology of learning and motivation/The psychology of learning and motivation · doi:10.1016/s0079-7421(08)60475-2 · Cited by 47
A task independent oral dialogue model
Bilange, E. (1991) · Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics · doi:10.3115/977180.977195 · Cited by 47
Chiang, S. (2011) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2011.07.001 · Cited by 48
Concrete processing of action metaphors: Evidence from ERP
Lai, V. T., Howerton, O., & Desai, R. H. (2019) · Brain Research · doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2019.03.005 · Cited by 45
Interpreting Questions and Replies: Effects of Face-Threat, Question Form, and Gender
Holtgraves, T. (1991) · Social Psychology Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2786785 · Cited by 46
Tag questions in fiction dialogue
Axelsson, K. (2011) · Gothenburg University Publications Electronic Archive (Gothenburg University) · doi:10.13140/rg.2.2.22990.25926 · Cited by 46
How to assign work in an office
Bax, I. P. (1986) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/0378-2166(86)90146-3 · Cited by 46
A Conversation Analysis—Informed Test of L2 Aural Pragmatic Comprehension
Walters, F. S. (2009) · TESOL Quarterly · doi:10.1002/j.1545-7249.2009.tb00226.x · Cited by 45
Ogiermann, E., & Bella, S. (2020) · Contrastive Pragmatics · doi:10.1163/26660393-bja10003 · Cited by 53
Nguyen, T. T. M. (2005) · ResearchSpace (University of Auckland) · Cited by 45
Dialect and conversational inference in urban communication
Gumperz, J. J. (1978) · Language in Society · doi:10.1017/s0047404500005790 · Cited by 44
Fleming, J. H. (1994) · Advances in experimental social psychology · doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60155-0 · Cited by 44
The ironic operation: Revisiting the components of ironic meaning
Kapogianni, E. (2015) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2015.11.001 · Cited by 44
Enabling Robots to Understand Indirect Speech Acts in Task-Based Interactions
Briggs, G., Williams, T., & Scheutz, M. J. (2017) · Journal of Human-Robot Interaction · doi:10.5898/jhri.6.1.briggs · Cited by 47
The effect of self-construals on conversational indirectness
Hara, K., & Kim, M.-S. (2004) · International Journal of Intercultural Relations · doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2003.12.005 · Cited by 44
Accounts as a reconstruction of an event's context
Buttny, R. (1985) · Communication Monographs · doi:10.1080/03637758509376095 · Cited by 44
The form and function of threats in court
Harris, S. J. (1984) · Language & Communication · doi:10.1016/0271-5309(84)90010-7 · Cited by 45
Nepali requestive acts: Linguistic indirectness and politeness reconsidered
Upadhyay, S. R. (2003) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/s0378-2166(03)00076-6 · Cited by 43
Embodied contexts, transcontextuals, and the timing of speech acts
Streeck, J. (1984) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/0378-2166(84)90067-5 · Cited by 43
Skewis, M. (2002) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/s0378-2166(02)00084-x · Cited by 45
THE GLAIR COGNITIVE ARCHITECTURE
Shapiro, S. C., & Bona, J. P. (2010) · International Journal of Machine Consciousness · doi:10.1142/s1793843010000515 · Cited by 43
The bargaining genre: A study of retail encounters in traditional Chinese local markets
ORR, W. W. F. (2007) · Language in Society · doi:10.1017/s0047404507070042 · Cited by 42
Interaction, Language Use, and Second Language Teaching
Huth, T. (2020) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781003017356 · Cited by 42
Maynard, D. W., Jeremy Freese, A., & Schaeffer, N. C. (2010) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.1177/0003122410379582 · Cited by 42
Domaneschi, F., Passarelli, M., & Chiorri, C. (2017) · Cognitive Processing · doi:10.1007/s10339-017-0809-6 · Cited by 42
Requirements for belief models in cooperative dialogue
Taylor, J. A., Carletta, J., & Mellish, C. (1996) · User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction · doi:10.1007/bf00126653 · Cited by 42
An attributional analysis of compliance‐gaining interactions
Wilson, S. R., Cruz, M. G., Marshall, L. J., et al. (1993) · Communication Monographs · doi:10.1080/03637759309376317 · Cited by 42
Experimental Psycholinguistics
Danks, J. H., & Glucksberg, S. (1980) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.ps.31.020180.002135 · Cited by 41
Dialogue management systems: a survey and overview
Churcher, G. E., Atwell, E., & Souter, C. (1997) · White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) · Cited by 41
The speech acts of arguing and convincing in externalized discussions
van Eemeren, F. H., & Grootendorst, R. (1982) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/0378-2166(82)90036-4 · Cited by 42
Empirical studies of discourse representations for natural language interfaces
Dahlbäck, N., & Jönsson, A. (1989) · Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics · doi:10.3115/976815.976854 · Cited by 41
How do system questions influence lexical choices in user answers?
Gustafson, J., Larsson, A., Carlson, R., & Hellman, K. (1997) · European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology (Eurospeech) · doi:10.21437/eurospeech.1997-599 · Cited by 40
Marsili, N. (2018) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198736578.013.12 · Cited by 39
The recognition of Dutch declarative questions
Beun, R. J. (1990) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/0378-2166(90)90063-j · Cited by 39
Mondada, L. (2011) · Nottingham French Studies · doi:10.3366/nfs.2011-2.002 · Cited by 40
Intention, interpretation and the computational structure of language
STONE, M. (2004) · Cognitive Science · doi:10.1016/j.cogsci.2004.05.001 · Cited by 39
“These investigations offer elegant analyses of the meaning of utterances in conversation (Grice, 1957; Grice, 1975; Searle, 1969; Searle, 1975; Lewis, 1979), and wide-ranging characterizations of the organization and functions of natural conversation (Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson, 1974; Brown &…”
BackgroundLee, H., & Cameron, G. T. (2016) · Health Communication · doi:10.1080/10410236.2015.1099506 · Cited by 42
Reiter, R. M. (2005) · Applied Linguistics · doi:10.1093/applin/amh018 · Cited by 39
Language understanding is grounded in experiential simulations: a response to Weiskopf
Gibbs, R. W., & Perlman, M. (2010) · Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A · doi:10.1016/j.shpsa.2010.07.004 · Cited by 38
A Hybrid Architectural Approach to Understanding and Appropriately Generating Indirect Speech Acts
Briggs, G., & Scheutz, M. J. (2013) · Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence · doi:10.1609/aaai.v27i1.8471 · Cited by 38
Persuasion and Psychological Reactance: the Effects of Explicit, High-Controlling Language
Miller, C. H. (2015) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/9781137478382_11 · Cited by 38
Robots Asking for Favors: The Effects of Directness and Familiarity on Persuasive HRI
Saunderson, S., & Nejat, G. (2021) · IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters · doi:10.1109/lra.2021.3060369 · Cited by 39
Politeness and Culture in Second Language Acquisition
Song, S. (2012) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/9781137030634 · Cited by 38
A model of hierarchical meanings in coherent conversation and a study of “indirect responses”
Pearce, W. B., & Conklin, F. (1979) · Communication Monographs · doi:10.1080/03637757909375993 · Cited by 38
A conversational model of multimodal interaction in information systems
Stein, A., & Thiel, U. (1993) · National Conference on Artificial Intelligence · Cited by 38
A comprehension model for human dialogue
Mann, W. C., Moore, J. A., & Levin, J. A. (1977) · International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence · Cited by 38
La politesse et l'indirection : un essai de synthèse
Manno, G. (2002) · Langage et société · doi:10.3917/ls.100.0005 · Cited by 37
Im/politeness between the Analyst and Participant Perspectives: An Overview of the Field
Ogiermann, E., & Blitvich, P. G.-C. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108182119.001 · Cited by 38
An exploratory study of the interlanguage pragmatic comprehension of young learners of English
Lee, C. (2015) · Pragmatics Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) · doi:10.1075/prag.20.3.03lee · Cited by 38
Indirect request processing, sentence types and illocutionary forces
Ruytenbeek, N., Ostashchenko, E., & Kissine, M. (2017) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2017.07.011 · Cited by 38
The signaling function of sharing fake stories
Ganapini, M. B. (2021) · Mind & Language · doi:10.1111/mila.12373 · Cited by 37
Tough talk: Indirectness and gender in requests for information
Macaulay, M. I. (2001) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/s0378-2166(99)00129-0 · Cited by 37
Children's verbal and nonverbal communication in a conflict situation
Camras, L. A. (1984) · Ethology and Sociobiology · doi:10.1016/0162-3095(84)90005-0 · Cited by 37
Green, M. (2017) · Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics · doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.200 · Cited by 37
Answering Appropriately: A Developmental Perspective on Conversational Knowledge
Shatz, M., & McCloskey, L. A. (1984) · Springer series in cognitive development · doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9508-9_2 · Cited by 36
Explaining Perceptions of Racist Speech
Leets, L. (2001) · Communication Research · doi:10.1177/009365001028005005 · Cited by 36
Exploring L2 learners’ request behavior in a multi-turn conversation with a fully automated agent
Timpe‐Laughlin, V., & Dombi, J. (2020) · Intercultural Pragmatics · doi:10.1515/ip-2020-0010 · Cited by 36
An experimental investigation of the dilemma of delivering bad news
Vento, A. D., Bavelas, J. B., Healing, S., et al. (2009) · Patient Education and Counseling · doi:10.1016/j.pec.2009.09.014 · Cited by 36
Practical Language: Its Meaning and Use.
Charlow, N. A. (2011) · Deep Blue (University of Michigan) · Cited by 36
End-of-Dinner Food Offering: A Three-Way Contrastive Study
Chen, R., & Hu, C. (2020) · Contrastive Pragmatics · doi:10.1163/26660393-bja10009 · Cited by 35
Linguistic and extralinguistic communication in deaf children
Marco, I. D., Colle, L., & Bucciarelli, M. (2006) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2006.08.009 · Cited by 35
Facework by global brands across Twitter and Weibo
Li, C., & Wu, D. D. (2018) · Discourse Context & Media · doi:10.1016/j.dcm.2018.03.006 · Cited by 35
Ghazanfari, M., Bonyadi, A., & Malekzadeh, S. (2012) · International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning · doi:10.5861/ijrsll.2012.214 · Cited by 38
“According to Searle (1975a), speech acts fall into five general classes (cited in Ellis, 2008, p. 160): a) Representatives: These speech acts include assertions relating to true or false values (e.g. asserting, concluding); b) Directives: In these speech acts, the speaker tries to have the hearer…”
BackgroundLoukusa, S., Mäkinen, L., Gabbatore, I., et al. (2017) · Psychology of Language and Communication · doi:10.1515/plc-2017-0020 · Cited by 34
A discursive approach to organization development
Marshak, R. J., & Heracleous, L. (2005) · Action Research · doi:10.1177/1476750305049966 · Cited by 34
A Framework for Detecting Intentions of Criminal Acts in Social Media: A Case Study on Twitter
de Mendonça, R. R., de Brito, D. F., Rosa, F. D. F., et al. (2020) · Information · doi:10.3390/info11030154 · Cited by 34
Modulating action through minimization: Syntax in the service of offering and requesting
Raymond, C. W., Robinson, J. D., Fox, B. A., Thompson, S. A., & Montiegel, K. (2020) · Language in Society · doi:10.1017/s004740452000069x · Cited by 35
The Role of Comprehension Processes in Communication and Persuasion
Wyer, R. S., & Shrum, L. J. (2014) · Media Psychology · doi:10.1080/15213269.2014.912584 · Cited by 36
Gumperz, J. J. (1976) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-617650-6.50022-5 · Cited by 34
Constructing social norms: The pragmatics of multimodal quotation boundaries in spoken Swahili
Ivanova, O. (2013) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2013.07.011 · Cited by 34
Politeness and indirectness revisited
Lwanga-Lumu, J. C. (1999) · South African Journal of African Languages · doi:10.1080/02572117.1999.10587385 · Cited by 33
On the Pragmatic Poetry of Pose: Gesture, Parallelism, Politics
Lempert, M. P. (2018) · Signs and Society · doi:10.1086/695425 · Cited by 33
Persuasive language in the television medium
Schmidt, R., & Kess, J. F. (1985) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/0378-2166(85)90028-1 · Cited by 33
Quo vadis pragmatics? From adaptation to participatory sense-making
Foolen, A. (2019) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2019.03.008 · Cited by 33
Ferrara, M., Camia, M., Cecere, V., Villata, V., Vivenzio, N., Scorza, M., & Padovani, R. (2020) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-019-04358-6 · Cited by 33
“Lorusso (2009) expanded the classical proposal advanced by Bates (1976) and identified many components of linguistic pragmatics: (1) speech acts including the possible functions of a message (for example warning or thanking) and the communicative purpose that determines the meaning of words used in language (Searle 19…”
BackgroundCharles Morris and the Behavioral Foundations of Semiotics
Posner, R. (1987) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-9700-8_2 · Cited by 33
Presumptive Reasoning in Interpretation. Implicatures and Conflicts of Presumptions
Macagno, F. (2012) · Argumentation · doi:10.1007/s10503-011-9232-9 · Cited by 33
‘Can you pass the salt?’: A short-circuited implicature?
Groefsema, M. (1992) · Lingua · doi:10.1016/0024-3841(92)90028-h · Cited by 33
Telling it like it isn't — exploring an instance of pragmatic ambivalence in supervisory discourse
Wajnryb, R. (1998) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/s0378-2166(97)00076-3 · Cited by 33
Schnelle, H. (1979) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-4104-4_6 · Cited by 33
Telling more than the truth: Implicature, speech acts, and ethics in professional communication
Riley, K. (1993) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/bf01686446 · Cited by 36
Proceedings of ISFC 35: voices around the world
Wu, C., Matthiessen, C. M. I. M., & Herke, M. (2008) · Cited by 33
Metadata
- Authors
- Searle, J. R.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Corresponding author
- John Rogers Searle
- Venue
- Expression and Meaning
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Published
- 1979-10-31
- Pages
- 30-57
- OpenAlex
- W2995748625
- Cited by
- 1,393
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 44 · 2018: 93 · 2017: 52 · 2016: 65 · 2015: 88 · 2014: 47 · 2013: 50 · 2012: 49
- FWCI
- 285.41
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
- Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Linguistics and Discourse Analysis
- Keywords
- indirect speech acts, illocutionary force, illocutionary acts, speech act theory, utterance meaning, requests, hints, insinuation, irony, metaphor
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
