ABSTRACT
Some genres seem rather simple, others very complex. Some are closely anchored to a particular kind of situation, others seem to float free of any such grounding. Some are close to, or even identical with, a single speech act, as is the prayer to praying, the military command to ordering, while others such as the novel or the shaggy-dog story are made up of a multiplicity of speech acts and can incorporate a wide range of other genres.
