Austin on Meaning and Use
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Marina Sbisa,
Marina Sbisà is Professor of Philosophy of Language at the University of Trieste, Italy. She has done research (with particular attention to pragmatic issues) in philosophy of language, semiotics, discourse analysis and gender studies, publishing two volumes in Italian (
Linguaggio, ragione, interazione [Language, reason, interaction], Bologna: Il Mulino 1989;Detto Non Detto [Said not said], Roma-Bari: Laterza 2007) and papers in international journals and collections. She collaborated with J.O. Urmson on the revised edition of J.L. Austin‟s work,How to Do Things with Words (1975).
Abstract
Austin rejected the objectification of “meanings” and was also critical of the identification of meaning with truth-conditions. Much of his work appears to be inspired by a conception of meaning as use. In particular, apparently at least, his “performative utterances” are utterances whose understanding amounts to the understanding of their use. But Austin did not endorse the tendency, common in Ordinary Language Philosophy, to explain the meaning of linguistic expressions in terms of their use alone. His distinction between locutionary meaning and illocutionary force was designed to avoid such a reduction. But it is unclear whether (and if so, how) speech act theory can escape paying the price of a new objectification of meaning (as consisting of “propositions” to which “forces” apply).
About the author
Marina Sbisà is Professor of Philosophy of Language at the University of Trieste, Italy. She has done research (with particular attention to pragmatic issues) in philosophy of language, semiotics, discourse analysis and gender studies, publishing two volumes in Italian (Linguaggio, ragione, interazione [Language, reason, interaction], Bologna: Il Mulino 1989; Detto Non Detto [Said not said], Roma-Bari: Laterza 2007) and papers in international journals and collections. She collaborated with J.O. Urmson on the revised edition of J.L. Austin‟s work, How to Do Things with Words (1975).
©[2012] by De Gruyter Mouton Berlin
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Editorial
- Austin on Meaning and Use
- The Emergence of Intentional Meaning: A Different Twist on Pragmatic Linguistic Action
- Cognitive Pragmatics Ways into Discourse Analysis: the Case of Discursive Presuppostions
- Establishing Diganostic Criteria: The Role of Clinical Pragmatics
- Pragmatics and Cinematic Discourse
- A Brief Revisit to the Apaches, the Igbos, the Akan and the Finns: Thoughts on the Pragmatics of Silence and the Maxim of Quantity
- Intercultural aspects of the speech act of promising from a relevance theoretic point of view
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Editorial
- Austin on Meaning and Use
- The Emergence of Intentional Meaning: A Different Twist on Pragmatic Linguistic Action
- Cognitive Pragmatics Ways into Discourse Analysis: the Case of Discursive Presuppostions
- Establishing Diganostic Criteria: The Role of Clinical Pragmatics
- Pragmatics and Cinematic Discourse
- A Brief Revisit to the Apaches, the Igbos, the Akan and the Finns: Thoughts on the Pragmatics of Silence and the Maxim of Quantity
- Intercultural aspects of the speech act of promising from a relevance theoretic point of view
