ABSTRACT
Violations of the conversational maxims indicate that speakers are doing something other than simply reporting facts; what they are actually saying may be indicated by the proper reinterpretation rule. Of course, language is used for many things other than simply stating facts. A performative verb in a proper context can change social realities, but the performative utterance can be seen to be significant verbal parts of the ceremonies that establish the realities. Languages invariably provide for common performative acts, such as questioning or commanding with special forms, often sentence-suffixes, but verb-suffixes or rearrangements of the elements at the beginning of the sentence. The propositional attitudes that they express can also be used in non-literal ways. Understanding another's intent can be a complex process, though there are many expressions for specific intents. These often have little descriptive meaning or propositional content.
