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Catfish and Spaghetti A Manifesto on Indirect Speech Acts How much simpler would life be if everything someone said could be taken at face value? Literal meaning is so simple and so easy. How much heartache would be cured if "I'll call you," simply meant exactly that? Unfortunately, human language is infinitely more complex than literal meaning. Every day we use expressions to indirectly convey meaning. We're using indirect speech acts when our intended speech act is performed by using another sort of speech act, like a command is performed by a question (Do you think you could pass the ketchup?), or an assertion is performed by a question (Have I ever let you down before?). Consider the following example: In a restaurant, you ponder for a while and then say to your waitress, "I would like the spaghetti tonight." She stares at you for a moment and then says, "The catfish...

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