Book contents
- The Language and Dynamics of Fiction
- Reviews
- The Language and Dynamics of Fiction
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- I Introduction
- Part I Records and Force
- 1 Fictional Records
- 2 Internal Records
- 3 Foreground and Background
- 4 Gricean Reasoning and Cooperation
- 5 Supporting Assumptions and Default Inferences
- 6 Fictive Force
- 7 Fiction and Assertion
- Part II Files and Roles
- References
- Index
6 - Fictive Force
from Part I - Records and Force
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2026
Book contents
- The Language and Dynamics of Fiction
- Reviews
- The Language and Dynamics of Fiction
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- I Introduction
- Part I Records and Force
- 1 Fictional Records
- 2 Internal Records
- 3 Foreground and Background
- 4 Gricean Reasoning and Cooperation
- 5 Supporting Assumptions and Default Inferences
- 6 Fictive Force
- 7 Fiction and Assertion
- Part II Files and Roles
- References
- Index
Summary
In ordinary conversation a central aim of utterances is to update common ground information. In this chapter I argue for the analogous claim about fictive utterances used to tell fictional stories. That is, the mark of a fictive utterance is that it is intended to update a fictional record. This is a way of accounting for the observation that fiction and factual discourse are distinguished only in terms of the force of the ingredient utterances. While not offering a reductive analysis of fictionality, characterizing fictive force in terms of fictional records sheds light on some of the communicative features of fictive utterances.
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- The Language and Dynamics of Fiction , pp. 88 - 99Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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