From Modalized Propositions to Speech Acts

Abstract

This chapter starts out with an explanation of how the context dependence inherent in Kratzer’s account of modal expressions can be used to derive the wide range of speech acts that can be associated with imperative clauses. Then the propositional at issue-meaning is endowed with an additional presuppositional meaning component that confines the use of imperative propositions to non-assertoric contexts. Crucially, for the utterance of an imperative to be felicitous in the given context, it is required that the speaker count as an authority (modeled in terms of epistemic authority) on the modal flavor in question, and that this modal flavor either corresponds to the speaker’s wishes or be accepted as providing relevant guidelines for deciding on what to do.