 If assertions are about particular situations, reports of assertions might not be accurate unless they take into account the situations the assertions were about. And there are more repercussions of Austinian reasoning: if assertions are about particular situations, beliefs should be, too, and this means that our belief ascriptions might not be accurate unless they take into account the situations the beliefs are about. That those situations do indeed matter for belief ascriptions is illustrated by the story of the Butler and the Judge from Kratzer 1998 (see Ogihara 1996, Kratzer 1990 (Other Internet Resources), 2002, 2012; Portner 1992, Récanati 2000, for relevant work on the role of topic situations in attitude ascriptions and other embedded constructions):