Introduction

The assumption that communicative action is strategic and goal-oriented is virtually a given starting point of communication research (e.g., see recent volumes by Cody & McLaughlin, 1990; Daly & Wiemann, in press; Tracy & Coupland, 1990) as well as its most influential disciplinary neighbor: psychology (Frese & Sabini, 1985; Giacalone & Rosenfeld, 1989; Jones & Pittman, 1982; Schank & Abelson, 1977). The purpose of this book is not to challenge the reasonableness of the assumption—it is unimaginable that accounts of communicative action could be adequate without recognizing that people are purposeful and use talk to accomplish “goals”—but rather to challenge the simplistic way in which that assumption has typically been understood.