ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how, with the introduction of automation, the issues of speaker agency, boundary and intention become even more intractable unless a posthumanist orientation is adopted. The main issue regarding speaker agency is that agency is distributed rather than localizable within a putative speaker. The issue with speaker boundary is that the boundary that delimits the speaker does shift, and accommodating these shifts requires an appreciation of the properties of assemblages. And the main issue regarding speaker intention is not it does not exist; instead, it is how to situate intention in relation to distributed agency and shifting boundaries. The overall argument from this chapter is that the speaker has to be relegated to a much less important role in communication than has been traditionally the case. Instead, it is the hearer that needs to be given much greater importance and consideration.
