Identity and identification — same and different

Abstract

In speech act theories from Austin through Searle to Habermas and Grice there has been a general consensus about the conditions which constitute a dialogue, and the situation in which verbal communication between people takes place. It is agreed that a dialogue is a social activity which, formally speaking, presupposes the presence and acting of at least two persons in the roles of speaker and listener; a “something” which is the object being talked about; and verbal utterances being “sent” and “received”. In the type of speech acts with which this text so far has been mainly (if not entirely) concerned, i.e. statements and descriptions about things in reality, it is fundamental that the speakers have identified not only the things being talked about, but also themselves as persons belonging within the same reality.