Expositives in discourse

•The expositive act type is a higher-level speech act.•The expositive act type refines a pragmatic theory of discourse.•The expositive act type contributes to the structuring of discourse.•Expositives make manifest how contributions are to be discursively contextualized.•Discourse connectives signal connectedness between discursive contributions.

This paper examines speech acts in general and the expositive illocutionary act type in particular from a discourse-anchored perspective, discussing discourse-induced modifications and reconceptualizations. We propose that expositives (Austin, [1962]1975) are a higher-level illocutionary act type which makes manifest how speech acts and their linguistic realizations are intended to be interpreted in discourse. Their interpretation in discourse may trigger a (re)contextualizing of locutionary meaning and illocutionary force, thus contributing to the structuring of discourse. Effect-based speech act theory as put forward by Austin provides bridging points between classical speech act theory and discourse. Connecting speech acts and their linguistic realization with prior and upcoming speech acts and their linguistic realization requires the explicit accommodation of the context-changing potential of speech acts and thus of perlocutionary effect. Analogously to discourse connectives in discourse analysis, expositives contribute to discursive sequencing and contextualization and can thus be assigned the status of generalized contextualization devices.