Speaking and Calculating: (im)possibilities

Abstract

Is it possible for the speaker to calculate the effects he has on his interlocutor? Is it possible that the interlocutor interprets his intention? This article formulates these questions and, through an analysis of the answers that the most well-known currents of pragmatics have given to them, we discuss the conception of the subject that lies under these investigations. In the same way, we emphasize some of the epistemological suppositions that permit this discipline to give an account of language use.