This paper analyses whether and, if so, how assertion can be said to be social from a speech-act theoretical point of view. In the first part, I will present a well-know argument put forth by Peter Pagin against standard analyses of assertion as a social act. In the second part, I will argue that, while Pagin’s argument poses serious problems to this kind of analyses, there is an alternative route one can take in characterizing the social nature of assertion. In particular, my aim will be to show that, on the basis of an Austin-inspired conception of illocutionary act, one can provide a specific kind of social approach to assertion and its effects that is immune to Pagin’s argument.
