DEFECTIVE ILLOCUTION: A PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS OF SPEECH ACTS AND MEANING

Аннотация

This paper explores the nature of promising as an illocutionary act by identifying the necessary and sufficient conditions for its successful and non-defective performance. It analyzes these conditions in terms of propositions that both entail and are entailed by the act of promising. Furthermore, the discussion extends to cases where promises may be defective yet still performed. The investigation is grounded in speech act theory, especially Austin’s notion of infelicity. Additionally, the paper examines the complexity of reference in language, scrutinizing definite descriptions, proper names, and non-referential nounphrases. Keywords: Illocutionary acts, promising, speech act theory, reference, definite descriptions, proper names, use-mention distinction,linguisticpragmatics.