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Exploring the Semantics of Communication Acts

The meanings of communication acts depend on what they are about. From a new ontology that recognises only realities constructed by responsible agents, the paper illustrates how this idea gives rise to a concept: that of ontological dependency, which leads to a canonical schema (SNF) for a given action- or problem-domain. Applied to communication acts, this augments the well-developed Language-Action Paradigm. The SNF approach is contrasted with the State Transition Diagram (STD) protocol approach. It highlights the distinction between the momentary speech act (such as a request) and the social construct (also a request) that persists to govern the conduct of participants in the conversation. The SNF compels one to examine how conversations connect parts of reality that exist at different times, thus exposing the machinery for the construction and use of our social reality. Some aspects of conversations are examined in a legal context to suggest further research.