Indirect Speech Acts The relation between the three sentence types (syntactic). the semantic categories and the corresponding categories of illocutionary force can be shown as follows: (syntactic: (declarative)(interrogative)(imperative) semantic: proposition question command pragmatic: asserting asking directing (Any connection involving horizontal movement is an indirect one.The relation between,e.g.,a proposition and act of asserting is relatively direct,whereas that betwen a proposition and the act of asking is relatively indirect.See examples below)The relation between the three sentence types (syntactic), the semantic categories and the corresponding categories of illocutionary force can be shown as follows: (syntactic:) (declarative) (interrogative) (imperative) semantic: proposition question command pragmatic: asserting asking directing (Any connection involving horizontal movement is an indirect one. The relation between, e.g., a proposition and act of asserting is relatively direct, whereas that betwen a proposition and the act of asking is relatively indirect. See examples below) Indirect Speech Acts