Personal Intent And Social Phenomenon, As The Domain Of Speech Act Theory

Grice's meaning theory of intentionality has particularly stressed that the meaning of a speech act lies in the speakers'intention and speakers'meaning which function to perform illocutionary act. Searle pointed out that Grice has not distinguished the difference between perlocutionary act and illocutionary act, giving no account of how meaning can be conveyed in terms of rules and social practices for the sake of the hearer, that is, how the hearer can understand the speakers'intention to better achieve the perlocutionary effect. According to Searle, the meaning of a speech act exists not only in the illocutionary act by the speakers'intention, but also in the hearers'grasp of the intention realized by the semantic combination with other factors to fulfill the perlocutionary act. Though he has objectively attributed the rules and social practices to Grice's meaning theory of subjective intentionality and partially to the perlocutionary act, his research has still been confined to the illocutionary act, for his meaning theory is mostly dominated by performatives and intentionality. Moreover, his research on the objective and substantial dimensions of meaning is inadequate. How to approach the complete meaning of a speech act resorting to the perlocutionary effect is the main issue. The thesis has expounded three objective factors—context, cognitive structure of the hearer, the rules and social practices in the social phenomenon, which make possible the perlocutionary effect. The combination of illocutionary and perlocutionary acts, which is also the one of speakers'meaning and social phenomenon, and of subjective and objective dimensions of meaning, while remedying the shortcomings of Grice's and Searle's research, will give full expression to the substantial dimension of meaning.