The Language of Argument

2 9

C o n v e r s a t i o n a l A c t s

Suppose, for example, Amy says to Bobbi, “Someone is following us.” In

this case, Amy has performed a linguistic act; that is, she has uttered a mean-

ingful sentence in the English language. Amy has also performed a speech

act—specifically, she has stated that they are being followed. The point of

performing this speech act is to produce in Bobbi a particular belief—

namely, that they are being followed. (Amy’s utterance might also have

other purposes, such as to alert Bobbi to some danger, but it accomplishes

those other purposes by means of getting Bobbi to believe they are being

followed.) If Amy is successful in this, then Amy has successfully performed

the conversational act of producing this belief in Bobbi. Amy, of course,

might fail in her attempt to do this. Amy’s linguistic act could be successful

and her speech act successful as well, yet, for whatever reason, Bobbi might

not accept as true what Amy is telling her. Perhaps Bobbi thinks that Amy

is paranoid or just trying to frighten her as some kind of joke. In that case,

Amy failed to perform her intended conversational act, even though she did

perform her intended linguistic and speech acts.

Here are some other examples of the difference between performing a

speech act and performing a conversational act:

We can warn people about something in order to put them on guard

concerning it.

Here warning is the speech act; putting them on guard is the intended

conversational act.

We can urge people to do things in order to persuade them to do these things.

Here urging is the speech act; persuading is the intended conversational act.

We can assure people concerning something in order to instill confidence in

them.

Here assuring is the speech act; instilling confidence is the intended

conversational act.

We can apologize to people in order to make them feel better about us.

Here apologizing is the speech act; making them feel better about us is

the intended conversational act.

In each of these cases, our speech act may not succeed in having its intended

conversational effect. Our urging, warning, and assuring may, respectively,

fail to persuade, put on guard, or instill confidence. Indeed, speech acts

may bring about the opposite of what was intended. People who brag (a

speech act) in order to impress others (the intended conversational act) often

actually make others think less of them (the actual effect). In many ways

like these, we can perform a speech act without performing the intended

conversational act.

The relationship between conversational acts and speech acts is confus-

ing, because both of them can be performed at once by the same utterance.

Suppose Carl says, “You are invited to my party.” By means of this single

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