You Got That Wrong

Abstract This chapter explores various kinds of recognition failure that can occur during a communication attempt. It also considers whether these recognition failures constitute communicative failure and thus silencing. In particular, this chapter considers a case where the speaker’s intended meaning is misidentified, another one in which the speech action is misunderstood, and a third case in which the speaker is mistakenly interpreted as insincere. Several additional sorts of recognition failures (concerning the speaker’s authority, the reasons for a speech act, and the speaker’s true self) are also identified. Additional lessons are explored with an eye to identifying why one should care about these recognition failures. The chapter ends with a critical discussion of Caponetto’s seriousness silencing.