 But even this rather modest subgoal may be too much to require for the success of the communicative action qua communicative action. Suppose I say that it is raining, and you hear me and understand the meaning of my words. But you don’t think I am being sincere; you don’t believe that I believe what I said. But still, I have said it. My overall plan to help insure that you don’t get wet and catch cold may fail, but I do seem to have succeeded in saying what I set out to say. It seems that the only new mental state needed is the audience’s recognition of the speaker’s communicative intention; his understanding of the speaker’s utterance. This is what has been called ‘illocutionary uptake’: