 One might think that the central issue here would be to decide between the speech-act view (1) and the mental acts views (2) and (3); it might be thought to be less important, an issue of intramural interest only, to decide between (2) and (3). But this is not right. The important debate is between (1) and (2). For (3) is, understood in one way, no competitor with either (1) or (2); and understood differently, it has little argumentative support.