... something”, while in the illocutionary act we are “doing something” – answering a question, announcing a verdict, giving a warning or making a promise. These ideas are on the basis of speech act ... circumstances are, John may leave. The interpretations in ( 9a) , (1 2a) involve epistemic conversational backgrounds, while those in (9b) or (12b) involve deontic (or root) conversational backgrounds. ... encompasses all forms of secondhand fact such as report, quotation, hearsay, assumption, appearance, and all other types of supportive, auxiliary information, of which quotation...