Memory for illocutionary forces and perlocutionary effects of utterances

Abstract

Abstract A series of experiments was carried out to examine memory for illocutionary forces and perlocutionary effects of sentences containing reported utterances. The illocutionary force of an utterance corresponds roughly to the intent of the speaker (to warn, to ask, to order). The perlocutionary effect is the effect the utterance might have on a hearer (to amaze, to bore, to frighten). Since understanding the illocutionary forces and the perlocutionary effects of utterances appears to be a central part of using language, it was hypothesized that subjects hearing sentences containing reported utterances would confuse these original sentences with new sentences containing illocutionary forces or perlocutionary effects consistent with the original sentences. The predicted effects were found in recall for illocutionary forces and in recognition memory for perlocutionary effects.