"If you're hungry, there are cookies on the table": Semantic Cohesion in Speech Act Conditionals

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Oliveira, Sandi Michele De
Copyright Year	2000
Abstract	Speech act conditionals are utterances which have the apparent structure of conditionals but function semantically as speech acts (e.g., invitations, suggestions), as in the sentence If you’re hungry, there are cookies on the table. Few authors have dedicated articles to their study (e.g., van der Auwera, Johan, in Traugott, ter Meulen, Reilly & Ferguson 1986: 197-214), although some have considered them within the larger category of conditionals (e.g., Dancygier & Sweetser, in Goldberg 1996: 83-98). Van der Auwera’s article considers whether speech act conditionals are better viewed as conditional speech acts or as speech acts about conditionals, while Dancygier & Sweetser discuss the mental spaces which are created by conditionals of various types. The current article suggests new avenues of research, as it presents the findings of a study conducted in Portugal, Japan, Denmark and the U.S. examining speakers’ recognition and acceptance of sentences of this type as appropriate speech acts. This project was inspired by a conference given by Eve Sweetser (1998) at the University of Copenhagen on “Linguistic Compositionality and Mental Spaces.” Sweetser’s first example was If you are hungry, there are cookies on the table. This sentence is understood by native speakers of English as an invitation to eat some cookies. While the statement begins with “if”, no condition is expressed; that is, whether or not the other is hungry, the cookies are on the table, and an invitation is made to eat them. Our ability to understand this as an invitation is a reflection of our pragmatic competence in English, and rarely does one even comment on the literal incongruity (as in “Oh, you mean if I am not hungry the
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Alternate Webpage(s)	https://web.uri.edu/iaics/files/09-Sandi-Michele-de-Oliveira.pdf
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article