On the Analysis of Communicative Action

I use the label verbs of communication to designate verbs of the following type: warn, admit, threaten, state, deny, request, guess and assert. All of these are verbs which refer to some aspect of an interaction between persons which at least partly involves communication. The term "verbs of communication" has been chosen rather than the otherwise common term "speech act verbs" since those aspects of communication to which the verbs refer are far from always connected with speech. One can quite well warn, threaten" request, reject and order without using speech or even gestures with conventional meaning. Without any act conventional significance. a fist raised spontaneously as though to strike can by virtue of its natural connections with anger and pain be quite sufficient to threaten somebody.