What is fit?

Fit is a correspondence, or lack of correspondence, between the state of affairs described by the propositional content of an illocutionary act and the state of affairs in the world.

• The truth or falsity of the contents of an assertive act
• The status of a commissive act's contents as kept or broken by the speaker
• The status of a directive act's contents as fulfilled or unfulfilled by the person from whom compliance is sought
• The successful or unsuccessful performance of a declarative act

Searle and Vanderveken 1985 52–53, 96–98

Context for this page:

• Concept module: fit
• In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): F
• 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

© 2004 SIL International