Reference and Computational Models of Illocutionary Acts

My general goal in this paper is to explore possible relations between a cognitive analysis of the notion of reference on the one hand, and computational models of speech acts (illocutionary acts, to be precise) on the other. On the cognitive side, we have the following problem: how can thoughts (and sentences that articulate them) be about objects? The deceptive simplicity of the question masks a century of lively philosophical debate but it is not the debate that I wish to focus on here. Instead, I will assume a framework of what I have called the deacriptive approach to the problem of reference I. The most important single principle of this framework is that the descriptive content of an individuating representation denoting an object is both necessary and sufficient for a belief (or any other propositional attitude) to be about that object. I have argued for this principle elsewhere 2