Speech Acts: Dynamic Force and Conversational Update
35th European Summer School in Logic, Language, and Information (ESSLLI 2024)
Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini and Henry Schiller
July 29 – August 2, 2024
Course Abstract:
Stalnaker’s theory of the dynamic effect of assertion treats assertoric updates as intersective functions from one context to another. For Stalnaker, this is the characteristic way in which assertion changes the state of a conversation: its dynamic force. This course will introduce students to work in formal pragmatics on the dynamic force of various speech acts. We’ll begin with an introduction to speech act theory and discourse context, and then introduce Stalnaker’s theory of assertion as well as some challenges to that theory. The next part of the course will consider formal theories of directives and questions. In this section, our aim will be to assess whether we can account for the dynamic effects of these speech acts while remaining within the Stalnakerian model — and if not, how else we might account for those effects. Finally, we’ll turn our attention to topics that push the boundaries of traditional theories of formal pragmatics, such as felicitous underspecification and peripheral content.
Lecture Slides:
Day 1 (7/29): Speech Acts and Context
Day 2 (7/30): Assertion
Day 3 (7/31): Questions
Day 4 (8/1): Imperatives
Day 5 (8/2): Challenges and Extensions