Tom Holtgraves studies how language helps us do things. We use words to inquire, to instruct, to command, and to persuade. Words are social. He's currently a Professor of Psychological Science at Ball State University (just down the hall from me!), and his lab studies how people use language and other symbols (e.g., emoji) to successfully or unsuccessfully communicate with one another.

He edited the Oxford Handbook of Language and Social Psychology  and authored Language as Social Action: Social Psychology and Language Use. In our conversation, Tom introduces me to Speech Act Theory and what his own work tells us about how we can get our intentions across through language.

Some things that come up in this episode:

• J. L. Austin's book "How to Do Things with Words"
• How we communicate uncertainty (Holtgraves, 2014; Holtgraves & Perdew, 2016)
• How emoji are used to convey indirect meaning (Holtgraves & Robinson, 2020)
• Politeness in conversational arguments (Holtgraves, 1997)

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