To communicate is to <i>make communicate</i>

Abstract What happens when people interact through the exchange of texts in messaging software applications? Through these applications, people exchange messages that present them as doing certain things: informing, asking something, reassuring, joking, etc. These messages therefore act on people’s behalf. To account for this reality, we need to develop a theory of communication that allows us to analyze the phenomenon by which what we say or write speaks or do things on our behalf. We propose a ventriloquial approach to communication, that highlights that all communication is an act of delegation by which various signs express themselves on our behalf or the behalf of what we also represent and make present.