What is success of fit?

Success of fit is a correspondence between the state of affairs described by the propositional content of an illocutionary act and the state of affairs in the world.

Here are some examples of success of fit:

• The truthfulness of an assertive act’s contents
• The status of a commissive act’s contents as kept by the speaker
• The fulfillment of a directive act’s contents by the person from whom compliance is sought
• A declarative act that is successfully performed

Searle and Vanderveken 1985 95–98

Context for this page:

• Concept module: success of fit
• 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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