ABSTRACT
The problem this chapter addresses is how the use of an utterance in a context (i.) becomes interpreted in a way that is compatible with the form of the speech act types, and (ii.) becomes interpreted as being of some particular speech act type and not others. A theory is developed accounting for speech act interpretation in a four stage process. The first stage involves determining the parts or constituents of an utterance that are capable of being given an interpretation. called the interpretive constituents of the utterance. The second stage utilizes the interpretive constituents in illocutionary mode functions. which convert the unanchored facts of the utterance into candidate propositions relating the speaker and addressee to those facts. It is at this stage that features of the discourse situation first impose themselves on the interpretation process, and at this stage that propositions capable of satisfying the structural requirements of speech act types are produced. The third stage reconciles all candidate propositions produced in stage two with the existing facts of the discourse situation, essentially eliminating redundancies and inconsistencies, and sometimes marking candidate propositions for special treatment. The fourth stage matches all surviving candidate propositions against the inventory of available speech act types, and reserves successful matches for possible implementation, under some criteria of choice. Implementation itself involves nothing more than adding to the discourse situation the propositions associated with the successfully matched speech act type(s). and making appropriate adjustments of facts in the discourse situation to conform to the conditions (if any) on the matched speech act type(s).
