intention

[Bryllars at concentric.net]

New to the list - so pardon if I put in an off the top thought which may be
ignoring
an ongoing technical focus of this discussion:

Celso Alvarez Caccamo wrote querying Ervin-Tripp's:
>>this interpretation perhaps attributes more intention than may actually
be there,
>>much of the time).
>I'm curious, at about what age does "more intention" start to enter such
>types of (indirect?) illocutionary acts (not only directives)?

   I would have thought that much of the point of such remarks is that they
are
ambiguous as to intention - whether or not by conscious attention or by
what is
often a strategic and often unconscious self-deception.
  Intention then becomes part of the whole social fabric in which such
types of remark
and a larger range of related remarks are embedded, and which must be "known"
to comprehend "intention".
  There are cultural patterns and norms affecting such remarks - some
regions or
groups within regions find them more acceptable than others - so they may also
be a source of conflict.
  Such factors must make it very difficult to determine an age or age range
at which
"more intention" can enter in.

Bryllars at concentric.net

	At 04:12 AM 6/15/00 +0200, Celso Alvarez Caccamo wrote:
>Margaret Field says,
>
>> In the past, linguists often counted "problem statements"
>> like "I'm hungry" or "it broke" as examples of indirect
>> directives as well, especially on the part of children, but
>> as Ervin-Tripp points out in a more recent paper (sorry I
>> don't have access to my references at the moment, but can
>> send them to interested parties later), this interpretation
>> perhaps attributes more intention than may
>> actually be there, much of the time).
>
>Sue (or whoever), I'm curious, at about what age does "more
>intention" start to enter such types of (indirect?)
>illocutionary acts (not only directives)? How did you come to
>conclude that? In any particular way different from any
>typical reconstruction of inferences in indirect acts in
>general?
>
>Thanks,
>-celso
>
>--
>Celso Alvarez Cáccamo              Tel. +34 981 167000 ext. 1888
>Linguística Geral, Faculdade de Filologia     FAX +34 981 167151
>Universidade da Corunha                          lxalvarz at udc.es
>15071 A Corunha, Galiza (Espanha)  http://www.udc.es/dep/lx/cac/
>
>
>
>