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Auteur: Enikő NÉMETH T.

Titre:
Intentions and perspectives in the social forms of language use


Abstract/Résumé: Language use and communication cannot be equated entirely. There are other social forms of language use such as informative and manipulative uses, as well as individual ones such as using language to think, memorize, sing for fun for oneself etc. (Bierwisch 1980; Németh T. 2008). Starting out from the definitions of intentions (Grice 1957; Searle 1983; Dennett 1990; Németh T. 2008) and ostensive-inferential communication (Sperber & Wilson 1986), an explicit distinction between the social forms of language use can be made taking into account what intentions the language users have. To assign intentions to the speakers is not an easy task. The participants in verbal interactions cannot identify the speakers’ intentions directly. They should take into account various clues and decide what kind of language use they are involved in. These clues include the speakers’ and hearers’ cognitive perspectives with their ostensive devices. In the social forms of language use speakers want their hearers to interpret verbal interaction from a certain cognitive perspective (Sanders & Spooren 1997; Tomasello 1999; Epley, Morewedge & Keysar 2004). In successful communication the speakers’ and hearers’ perspectives can coincide to a great extent, the speakers attempt to realize their intentions and the hearers recognize them. However, in the successful informative and manipulative forms of language use the speakers’ and hearers’ perspectives differ from each other, the speakers do not want to realize all their intentions and the hearers do not recognize all the speakers’ intentions. The hearers should recognize only the intentions the speakers want to be recognized. In the present paper I have two aims. On the basis of a thorough examination of data from spoken discourses and thought experiences, first, I intend to analyze how speakers can realize their intentions through their perspectives in verbal communication and what perspectives speakers attempt to develop in their hearers in informative and manipulative forms of language use in order to achieve that their hearers can infer the intentions the speakers want to demonstrate them. Second, I aim to examine how hearers in verbal interactions can infer speakers’ intentions assuming certain perspectives to the speakers relying on their own perspectives and the clues provided by the speakers. On the basis of the detailed analyses of data and theoretical considerations it can be argued that the realization and recognition of intentions, previously considered to be individual, egocentric mental phenomena, have a social-cognitive character in the above-mentioned social forms of language use through the perspective developing and perspective taking between speakers and their hearers in discourses.