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Wierzbicka, Anna (1985). Challenge, dare, defy: The semantics and lexicography of speech act verbs. Beiträge zur Phonetik und Linguistik, 48, 77-92.

Abstract:

Lexicographers have done a tremendous amount of work that, though lacking in the glamour of fashionable linguistic theories, may well prove to be of more use, and of more lasting value. It would be impardonable if, in undertaking new kinds of lexicographic activity, the semanticists and lexicographers of today and of tomorrow failed to acknowledge the great debt they owe to the classical dictionaries of the past. Nonetheless, the time has come to explore new avenues of lexicographic research. The present paper, and the dictionary (published 1987) on which it is based, is an attempt in this direction. It provides definitions of three English speech act verbs: challenge, dare, and defy.

In the author’s analysis, no speech act verb can be defined in terms of another speech act verb. The only verb referring to speech that can occur in the explications is say, which is regarded as indefinable and has the status of a universal semantic prime. The other words used in the explications do not always have this status, but they are all relatively simple. The strict separation of the words that are being defined from the small set of relatively simple words used for defining prevents vicious circles; rather than translating unknowns into other unknowns, the analysis reduces ‘posteriora’, i.e. complex and relatively obscure concepts, to ‘priora’, i.e. simpler and relatively clear concepts.

Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners