Speech Acts and Other Topics in Pragmatics

This book collects seventeen essays published between 1984 and 2020, in which Marina Sbisá develops her distinctive approach to speech acts and related pragmatic phenomena. Drawing inspiration from the work of J. L. Austin, the essays examine the categories of speech act theory and apply these categories in the context of natural discourse and conversation, with the aim of providing an accurate analysis of how speech can be action. Sbisá devotes particular attention to normative aspects of language and language use: speech acts reshape the normative context in which they occur by assigning or unassigning deontic properties to relevant parties. Emphasis is placed on the normative aspect of linguistically mandated presuppositions as well as the rational grounds of implicature. The conventionalist view of speech acts developed here turns on the role of intersubjective agreement in deontic updating, in a framework that shifts focus from single utterances to discursive
sequences and conversational interaction. This view challenges the main tenets of a Gricean intentionalist understanding of speech act performance, paving the way for a theory of speech actions centred on the normatively transformative power of illocution. Throughout the essays, examples and applications are given to illustrate how the view put forward contributes to understanding the social and political dimensions of linguistic activity, such as hidden persuasive strategies, power imbalances both within and outside the context of conversation, and the relevance of language and discourse to gender issues.

Marina Sbisá, University of Trieste

Marina Sbisá is Senior Scholar at the University of Trieste. She was awarded her Laurea in Philosophy at the University of Trieste in 1971, and was previously Researcher in Philosophy and Professor in Philosophy of Language at the same university, until retiring in 2018. She has held visiting positions Fuji Women's University, the University of Amiens and CURAPP-CNRS, Sczeczin, and Magdalen College and New College, Oxford. She is a member of the Consultation Board of the International Pragmatics Association and President of the Society for Women in Philosophy Italy.