Normativity and lying with non-assertoric speech acts

Speech act theories have primarily aimed to identify the unique characteristics of different types of speech acts. This has not been an easy endeavour. A simple statement, like saying “He will be back,” may be treated as a prediction, a warning, or even as a threat. Speech act theories have aimed at determining what distinguishes all these types of speech acts from each other. Traditional approaches have concentrated on the perspective of the speaker and have had little to say about the role of the audience. The aim of the dissertation is to challenge this approach and redirect our attention to the audience in our communicative exchanges. The dissertation offers an assessment of speaker-oriented accounts of speech acts, focusing particularly on accounts that explain speech acts in terms of norms governing them. Crucially, it brings the audience-oriented perspective into the spotlight. It provides case studies, which show the crucial role of the interplay between the speaker and the audience in construing comprehensive accounts of speech acts. Speech act theories have served the purpose of shedding new light on various problems. One of those problems concerns the nature of lying. The dissertation contributes to this debate in two ways. Firstly, by analysing various conversational exchanges, it shows how we can successfully lie with a variety of non-standard speech acts. Secondly, it empirically investigates the importance of an intention to deceive in our assessment of lies.