Abstract

The first-person pronoun I refers to a particular individual as the speaker who produces an utterance, and the second-person pronoun you refers to another individual to whom the speaker directs the utterance. They are indexicals, Themes from Kaplan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989): the referent of ‘I’ in ‘I am rich and famous’ changes from one speech situation to another, so does the referent of ‘you’ in ‘You are rich and famous’.These personal pronouns do not only refer to individuals. According to Banveniste, they refer to ‘instances of discourse’. According to Goffman, the speaker has the function of principal, which is carried out in discourse, as well as those of animator and author, who are real entities in the world. In Austin felicity conditions, performers of illocutionary acts are postulated, who are distinct from speakers in given cases.The purpose of the present paper is to examine discursive roles performed by the speaker and the hearer while investigating referents of I and you. In particular, expositives, which are one of the five illocutionary act types classified by Austin, are examined to specify discursive illocutionary acts.