Month: March 2025

Deixis – Words or phrases that require contextual information to be understood (e.g., “here,” “this,” “you”).

Grice’s Maxims of Conversation – Guidelines for effective communication: quantity, quality, relation, and manner.

Conversational Implicature – Meaning inferred from context rather than explicitly stated.

Direct vs. Indirect Speech Acts – Direct acts state something explicitly, while indirect acts imply meaning through context.

Performativity – The concept that language can act as a form of social action, such as in legal declarations or rituals.

Contextual Meaning – The way meaning is shaped by social and cultural context rather than just words.

Pragmatics – The study of how context influences the interpretation of meaning in communication.

Searle’s Speech Act Classification – John Searle’s categorization of speech acts into assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, and declarations.

Austin’s Speech Act Theory – A theory by J.L. Austin that classifies speech into locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts.

Perlocutionary Act – The effect a speech act has on the listener.