Publications

Publication details [#8728]

Searle, John R. 1980. The background of meaning. In Searle, John R., Ferenc Kiefer and Manfred Bierwisch, eds. Speech act theory and pragmatics. Reidel. pp. 221–232.

Publication type

Article in book

Publication language

English

Keywords

background information | meaning | truthfulness

Annotation

S. argues that in general the meaning of a sentence only has application (or only determines a set of truth conditions) against a background of assumptions and practices that are not representable as part of the meaning.