Page 52 - Communication and the Evolution of Society

29 What Is Universal Pragmatics?

sentence structure. But insofar as we consider a sentence as a
grammatical formation, that is, as independent of speech situa-
tions in which it can be uttered, these general pragmatic functions
are not yet “occupied.” To bring forth a grammatical sentence—
as an example, say, for linguists—a competent speaker need
satisfy only the claim to comprehensibility. He has to have mas-
tered the corresponding system of grammatical rules; this we call
his linguistic ability, and it can be analyzed linguistically. It is
otherwise with his ability to communicate; this is susceptible only
to pragmatic analysis. By “communicative competence” I under-
stand the ability of a speaker oriented to mutual understanding
to embed a well-formed sentence in relations to reality, that is:

1. To choose the propositional sentence in such a way that either the
truth conditions of the proposition stated or the existential presupposi-
tions of the propositional content mentioned are supposedly fulfilled
(so that the hearer can share the knowledge of the speaker)
;
2. To express his intentions in such a way that the linguistic expres-
sion represents what is intended (so that the hearer can trust the
;
speaker)
3. To perform the speech act in such a way that it conforms to
recognized norms or to accepted self-images (so that the hearer can
be in accord with the speaker in shared value orientations).

To the extent that these decisions do not depend on particular
epistemic presuppositions and changing contexts but cause sen-
tences in general to be engaged in the universal pragmatic func-
tions of representation, expression, and legitimate interpersonal
relation, what is expressed in them is precisely the communicative
competence for which I am proposing a universal-pragmatic in-
vestigation.
The part of universal pragmatics that is furthest developed is
that related to the representational function of utterances, for ex-
ample, to the use of elementary propositional sentences. This
classic domain of formal semantics has been pursued from Frege
to Dummet.® That this is a matter of universal-pragmatic investi-
gation can be seen in the fact that the truth value of propositions
is systematically taken into account. The theory of predication
does not investigate sentences in general (as does linguistics) but