Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning: Hannah Arendt and the Politics of Social Identity

by William P. Alston

What is it for a sentence to have a certain meaning? This is the question that the distinguished analytic philosopher William P. Alston addresses in this major contribution to the philosophy of language. His answer focuses on the given sentence's potential to play the role that its speaker had in mind, what he terms the usability of the sentence to perform the illocutionary act intended by its speaker.Alston defines an illocutionary act as an act...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801436699
• ISBN13: 9780801436697
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher