Topic 13 - Shared knowledge and absurdist drama (Session A) > More about shared schematic knowledge > Task D > Part 3

More about shared schematic knowledge

Task D – Knowledge about language and of communicative conventions

Part 3 - We have knowledge about the conditions for the ‘happy’ performance of particular speech acts.

When we say things in particular contexts we often perform actions through what we say, and linguists and philosophers normally call these actions speech acts. Let’s explore an example to show what we mean.

Below is a sentence. Let’s pretend that you have just said it.

I’m really really sorry.

Now answer the following questions and then compare your answers with ours.

1. What did you do (what speech act did you perform) when you uttered this sentence?
2. What sort of thing must have happened before you uttered the sentence?
3. What are you committed to after you have uttered the sentence?

Our answer

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