The many things we do with
a single sentence

Searle says that there are basically five things we are able to do with language: we can say something about the world (assertives), we can tell people to do something (directives), we can commit ourselves to doing something (commissives), we can express our psychological state (expressives), or we can bring about changes in the world through our saying something (declarations). However, the interesting thing to note is that even in seemingly simple sentences, we do many of these things at once. Moreover, we do these things with various degrees of intensity (what Searle calls illocutionary force).

In this paper, I will show that since most sentences fall under many of the above five categories, it is then important to examine the illocutionary force as indicated in the illocutionary verb and of course differentiate between differences in propositional content. The three sentences I will talk about are 1) "I warn you that the dog is dangerous." 2) "I dare you to eat the whole pizza" and 3) "He prays before he takes exams."

First, let me explain how each of these sentences falls into a variety of categories of illocutionary points. Although each sentence most often emphasizes one point over another, many points are present in the sentences. Let’s take the simplest of the three sentences first: "He prays before he takes an exam." The first thing to notice about this sentence is that "to pray" is not the illocutionary verb, but is merely part of the propositional content. The illocutionary point of the sentence is to state "that he prays before he takes an exam." The fact that something is being stated, not that fact that it talks about praying, makes this sentence classifiable as an assertive. The illocutionary verb is not in the sentence, but it is implied. In other words, Searle says that an assertive has in it the psychological state of belief, so it would not change the meaning of the sentence to say "I believe that he prays before he takes an exam."

Note, however, that instead of beginning the sentence with "I believe that" one could say "I insist that" or "I suggest that". These verbs, while they do not change the propositional content of the sentence (that he prays before he takes an exam), change the illocutionary force. Searle claims that the illocutionary verb is separate from the illocutionary act, and that different illocutionary verbs can mark the same illocutionary point: "Both ‘insist’ and ‘suggest’ are used to mark the degree of intensity with which he illocutionary point is presented."I insist p is merely stating p with more assurance than I suggest that p. However, I claim that changing the illocutionary verb can also change the illocutionary point. One can imagine that when a speaker says "He prays before he takes exams" what he really means is "I think that he prays before he takes an exam." Even if we don’t take the illocutionary verb "to think" as an expression of doubt, the speaker is, because of this verb, making an expressive statement. In addition to saying something about the world, he is saying something about himself (that he thinks that he prays before he takes exams) But I won’t go into this with this example, since the "I think" is not even there. Let us move on to the next sentence to illustrate this point.

When one says "I dare you to eat the whole pizza", it could be said that, like in the above example, the illocutionary verb is implied and the sentence is an assertive. In other words, the propositonal content could be seen as "that I dare you to eat the whole pizza" and again the illocutionary verb would be something like I believe. To argue this point, one could say that saying "I dare you" is no different from saying "he dares you" insofar as you are asserting something about the world: namely that someone is daring someone to do something. One could then go on to say that since the sentence expresses a psychological state (belief), the sentence is an expressive. You could even call it a declaration, since saying you dare someone makes it that you have dared them (just like saying you’ve fired someone makes it that you have fired them). What’s wrong with this? Technically, I don’t think there is anything wrong with it. However, They show that the important thing in classifying a sentence lies in the relationship between the illocutionary verb and the propositonal content, not in the illocutionary point.

These examples are not false, they just miss the primary point of the sentence, and, more specifically, of the illocutionary verb, to dare.

So let us examine the verb. Even If you try to classify the verb to dare solely in terms of illocutionary point, you get two possibilities. When you dare someone to do something you can say it is a directive: you are attempting to get someone to do something. Or you can say its an expressive: you are expressing a desire that someone does something. So, again, it is the meaning of the illocutionary verb (and its illocutionary force), more the classification of the illocutionary act that gives the meaning of the sentence. In the sentence we are dealing with, "I dare you to eat the whole pizza", the illocutionary verb "I dare", means either "I strongly desire (expressive)" or "I attempt to make it the case (directive)" and the propositional content is "that you eat the whole pizza." Notice that whether you call the illocutionary verb an expressive or a directive, the meaning stays the same, insofar as the illocutionary force indicated by the verb does not change, nor does the propositional content.

A similar thing happens with the third sentence, "I warn you that the dog is dangerous." One way of seeing the illocutionary point is as an assertive. In a sense the illocutionary verb "I warn" is saying "I assert" with the added illocutionary force that the act of warning implies (i.e. that danger is present). The propositional content is, of course, "that the dog is dangerous." On the other hand, "I warn" you can imply a word of caution, an attempt to get someone to stay away from something (i.e. the dangerous dog.) In this sense, "I warn" is a directive. Again, there are still other ways of classifying the illocutionary verb as a part of another attempt to make an illocutionary point. For example, one can call the sentence a declaration: One can say, "I hereby warn you that the dog is dangerous" and in saying so, you have warned the person. However, in conclusion, the meaning of the illocutionary verb, to warn, stays the same and the propositional content, "that the dog is dangerous", is communicated no matter how you classify the illocutionary point.