Date:  Fri, 7 Oct 1994 09:27:48 -0500

From:  debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UIUC.EDU

Subject: Re: Name that syntagm



>The term you are looking for (or at least one of them), when the compositional

>semantics does not add up to the pragmatic meaning (or illocutionary force) is

>indirect speech act. When one finds these (and even direct speech acts and

>other matters misinterpreted cross-linguistically, the generally agreed upon

>area of study appears to be interlanguage pragmatics.

>This ought to convince people that there are linguists out there. At least we

>have a code.

>Dennis Preston

><22709mgr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]msu.edu>



Well, other Dennis, I don't think indirect speech act is narrow enough for

this particular phenomenon. True, it is that, but it is also more. At least

we have a code. But has anybody got the secret decoder ring?



(the real) Dennis

--

Dennis Baron                       debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uiuc.edu



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