al (2011, pp.139) agree with Bird (2002) that the burglar was warned by the sign but
disagree with Bird (2002) that uptake failed. McGowan et al (2011, pp.139) argue that
uptake can be said to have been secured as the burglar did recognises that the
illocutionary intention of the sign was to act as a warning however, he then proceeded
to think that it was insincere (sincerity intention). Despite the burglar failing to
recognise the sincerity condition, that the sign was sincere, he did not fail to uptake the
illocutionary intention which is what uptake is dependent on. Therefore, Bird’s (2002,
pp. 4) example is not successful in showing that illocution can occur without uptake.
All it shows is “that a person is still warned even when that person falsely beli eves
that a sincere warning is insincere” (McGowan et al., 2011, pp.139). Since Bird’s
(2002) notion of uptake can now be dismissed we can legitimately call the ratification
theory (McDonald, 2020) of uptake the most coherent. This still leaves Langton’s
(1993) claim open to criticism on the grounds of it siding with the incorrect theory of
uptake.
Chapter 3: An alternative to illocutionary silencing and illocutionary
disablement
This chapter draws upon a paper by Hesni (2018) titled ‘Illocutionary frustration’ .
The paper shows that there is literature that goes beyond Langton’s (1993) Speech
‘Acts And Unspeakable Acts ’ in support of the notion that harm is imposed on women
by pornography. The text by Hesni (2018) is in support of the claim that pornography
harms women, yet against Langton’s specific (1993, pp.315) claim that this harm can
be explained through illocutionary silencing. Hesni (2018, pp.847) explores
illocutionary frustration and looks at “ standing ” (Hesni,2018, pp. 947) as a new way
to present the linguistic harm of pornography, as opposed to silencing. Her (Hesni,
2018) paper does this through the example of two scenarios in which she claims
Langton’s (1993) account treats differently when they are worthy of the same
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