New Work on Speech Acts impresses both in scope and content. The ‘new work’ not only bridges speech act theory (SAT) with other methodologies in philosophy of language (and does so masterfully) but also gives us a new and more systematic articulation of what SAT could be. The volume also unifies literature that is historically dispersed philosophically (and linguistically). It is a feat to bring philosophy of language, linguistics, philosophy of mind, semantics, pragmatics, feminism, and social and political philosophy into conversation with each other in a unified way. If anything comes close, it's this volume.
A volume like this might have many goals: making inroads into new applications of SAT; applying SAT to new areas in philosophy of language; or showing how SAT can elaborate on and amplify preexisting frameworks. The editors’ stated aim is to present SAT as “an integrated conversation” that brings together foundational issues about communication,...
