Indirect reports as language games

pp. 73-97

in: Alessandro Capone, The pragmatics of indirect reports, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

In this chapter I deal with indirect reports in terms of language games. I try to make connections between the theory of language games and the theory of indirect reports, in the light of the issue of clues and cues. Since indirect reporting is a social praxis, it is not surprising that it should be regimented by conventions of use. We hope to throw light on the nature of such conventions by using the notion of language game by Wittgenstein, which requires an essentially dialogic view of language. In language as dialogue, indirect reporting plays an important role, because, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter, an indirect report is a dialogic notion (the notion of footing is relevant to coming to a fuller understanding of this concept). By this chapter we are opening up a road conducive to a more dialogic view of indirect reporting. For the time being, suffice it to say that, for its understanding, an indirect report requires resorting to cues and clues that are visible in the context of the indirect reporting, while cues and clues of the original context are not available to the current participants. This explains why presuppositions (in that-clauses of indirect reports) have to be read with reference to the context of indirect reporting and not of the original speech act reported.