A New Catalogue
of Speech Acts

I

The Five Dimensions

Tap a dimension to isolate its coordinate across the whole catalogue.

II

The Catalogue

III

The Locator

One sentence, five coordinates. Move the settings; watch the act — and its felicity — change.

“With respect, I think you're conflating two separate issues.”

SURFACE: assertive · FORCE: directive (separate them)

Orientation · what it is keyed to
Motive · whose interest the effect serves
Scope · how it is to be read
Direction · what it targets

The act, under these coordinates

Risked misfire

IV

The Misfire Key

Felicity is not a property of the utterance but of the alignment of these coordinates between the parties. Most “communication breakdown” is a quarrel over coordinates two through five while both sides believe they are disputing the first.