What is a sincerity condition?

Definition
	A sincerity condition is the psychological state of the speaker concerning the propositional content of an illocutionary act.
	The sincere or insincere expression of this state necessarily accompanies all illocutionary acts, except for an act having a declarative illocutionary point, so that an act having
	an assertive point commits the speaker to having a state of belief a commissive point commits the speaker to having a state of intention a directive point commits the speaker to having a state of desire, and an expressive point commits the speaker to having an emotional, attitudinal, or sensory state.

Source
	Searle and Vanderveken 1985 18–19

Context for this page:

Concept module: sincerity condition
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): S
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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