The project developed a comprehensive interactionist theory of speech acts grounded in an Austin-inspired framework and informed by neodarwinian and biological approaches to language. Its central achievement is a refined model of illocutionary interaction in which illocutionary force is explained in terms of interactional effects shaped by conventionally stabilized patterns of cooperation rather than by speaker intentions or normative rules taken as primitive. The project offers a novel Austinian account of linguistic underdeterminacy, treating it as a property of both content and force, and integrates this account with a semantic eliminativist view inspired by Millikan’s biological theory of language.
A major contribution of the project is a naturalistic explanation of the normative dimension of illocutionary practice. Norms of sincerity and the normative effects of speech acts—such as commitments and entitlements—are explained in terms of conditions for the proper functioning and evolutionary stability of interactional patterns that enable coordination and common ground management. Normativity is thus shown to be conditional on participants’ willingness to sustain cooperative linguistic games.
The project also introduces a systematic theory of “Austinian games,” including a score-keeping model of illocutionary games that incorporates mechanisms of presupposition accommodation and supports an externalist account of illocutionary force. This framework is applied to the analysis of authority-establishing discourse and argumentation, demonstrating the broader relevance of the model for pragmatics, philosophy of language, and related disciplines.
Project-related publications
- Witek, M., How to Establish Authority with Words: Imperative Utterances and Presupposition Accommodation. In: A. Brożek, J. Jadacki & B. Žarnic (Eds.), Theory of Imperatives from Different Points of View (2), Warszawa: Semper 2013, 145-157.
- Budzynska, K., Witek, M., Non-Inferential Aspects of Ad Hominem and Ad Baculum, Argumentation, 28, 2014, 301-315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-014-9322-6
- Witek, M., Neoaustionowskie ujęcie interakcji illokucyjnej (A Neo-Austinian Account of Illocutionary Interaction). In: P. Stalmaszczyk, P. Cap (red.), Pragmatyka, retoryka, argumentacja. Obrazy języka i dyskursu w naukach humaniatycznych, Kraków: Universitas 2014, 139-159.
- Witek, M., Linguistic underdeterminacy: A view from speech acts theory. Journal of Pragmatics, 76, 2015, 15-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2014.11.003
- Witek, M., An interactional account of illocutionary practice. Language Sciences, 47, 2015, 43-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2014.08.003a
- Witek, M., Mechanisms of illocutionary games. Language & Communication, 42, 2015, 11-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2015.01.007
- Witek, M., Coordination and Norms in Illocutionary Interaction, In: M. Witek and I. Witczak-Plisiecka (Eds.), Normativity and Variety of Speech Actions, Leiden: Brill 2019, 66-98 (Poznań Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, Vol. 112). https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004366527_005