Page 82 - Communication and the Evolution of Society

59 What Is Universal Pragmatics?

quence of speech actions can be unequivocally classified under
these viewpoints. I am claiming only that every competent speaker
has in principle the possibility of unequivocally selecting one
mode because with every speech act he must raise three universal
validity claims, so that he can single out one of them to thematize
)
a component of speech.

The Rational Foundation of Illocutionary Force
Having somewhat elucidated the meaning structure and validity
basis of basic types of speech acts, I would like to return to the
question, in what does the illocutionary force of an utterance
consist? To begin, we know only what it results in if the speech
action succeeds—in bringing about an interpersonal relation.
Austin and Searle have analyzed illocutionary force by looking
for conditions of success or failure of speech acts. An uttered
content receives a specific communicative function through the
fact that the standard conditions for the occurrence of a corre-
sponding interpersonal relation are fulfilled. With the illocu-
tionary act, the speaker makes an offer that can be accepted or
rejected. The attempt a speaker makes with a illocutionary act
may founder for contingent reasons on the refusal of the addressee
to enter into the proffered relationship. This case is of no interest
in the present context. We shall be concerned with the other case,
in which the speaker himself is responsible for the failure of the
speech act because the utterance is unacceptable. When the speaker
makes an utterance that manifestly contains no serious offer, he
cannot count on the occurrence of the relationship intended by
him.
I shall speak of the success of a speech act only when the hearer
not only understands the meaning of the sentence uttered but
also actually enters into the relationship intended by the speaker.
And I shall analyze the conditions for the success of speech acts
in terms of their “‘acceptability.’” Since I have restricted my ex-
amination from the outset to communicative action—that is,
action oriented to reaching understanding—a speech act counts
as acceptable only if the speaker not merely feigns but sincerely
makes a serious offer. A serious offer demands a certain engage-