The Two-Way Relationship Between Talk in Social Interactions and Actors' Goals and Plans

Let us regard the standard conception of the relationship between actors’ goals and talk in social interactions as being Cushman's action-theoretic perspective— that actors first form a goal and then talk in a way that is instrumental to attaining that goal (Cushman and Craig, 1976; Cushman and Whiting, 1972; Sanders and Cushman, 1984). This is most explicit in Cushman's use of the “practical syllogism” (Von Wright, 1971) as the template for communication rules. With regard to talk, the practical syllogism has as its major premise a statement that the actor has some goal; as its minor premise a statement that the actor has a belief about what needs to be said to attain the goal; and as its “conclusion” the proposition that the actor says that which he or she believes is instrumental to attaining the goal