Speech acts or language micro- and macro-games?

In this paper, I will begin with a description of the origins of the speech act theory, and the classifications of speech acts. Then, I will review different camps of thought which had a bearing on our current understanding of speech acts, and specifically focus on Halliday’s metafunctions, Isaacs and Clark’s ostensible and genuine acts, Sperber and Wilson’s relevance theory, Mey’s conception of pragmemes, and Wittgenstein’s concept of language games. I will then put these together in my general discussion to present my own view of speech acts which I see as language micro- and macro-games. In my discussion of my own views, I will suggest that any act of language use (be it semiotic, kinesthetic, proxemic, verbal, orthographical, or otherwise) is essentially a language micro- or macro-game. Finally, I will describe my own model of ‘language game constellations’ which comprises language game sets, hierarchies, chains, and networks.