[lit-ideas] Re: Thanksgiving: An Illocutionary Approach
- From: Mike Geary <jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 10:18:18 -0600
I take back my thanks to JL. He ain't God.
Mike Geary
thankless in Memphis
On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 1:13 AM, <Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> In a message dated 11/24/2011 1:21:36 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx writes:
> And a very merry giving of thanks to JL ...
> Thankful Mike
> -----
>
> You're welcome.
>
> Incidentally, it is all religious. Of course, the object of 'thee' in "I
> thank thee", in the case of Thanksgiving, is God. Now, in terms of
> illocutionary logic, thanking _God_ is quite an issue. Also the
> communality ("We
> thank thee", rather than mono-utterer, "I" thank _thee_) requires some
> specific
> logic about joint intentions.
>
> What Searle calls 'felicity' conditions for 'happy' thanksgiving should
> apply here. The Pilgrims were possibly thanksgiving before they arrived to
> Plymouth, MA. Yet, thanksgiving as such was only much later celebrated in
> England, and only due to the American influence. And so on.
>
> I read from "Foundations of illocutionary logic" -
> John R. Searle, Daniel Vanderveken - 1985 - Language Arts & Disciplines,
> p. 212:
>
>
> "thank."
>
> "The point of thanking is to express gratitude. The preparatory conditions
> are that the thing in question benefits or is good for the [utterer] and
> that the [addressee] is responsible for it."
>
> "As with apologies, one normally thanks for actions, but the propositional
> content
> need not necessarily represent an action provided that the [addressee] IS
> responsible."
>
> "Thus //thank// is an expressive illocutionary
> force of the form..."
>
> "Psi Sigma -/, where Psi (i, p) = {gratitude, p} and Sigma (i, p) = P, the
> proposition that [addresee] is responsible
> for the state of affairs that p at time t, that state of affairs
> is good for the [utterer]."
>
> "It is important to note that one thanks the addressee
> for something about him and his relation to the state
> of affairs specified by the propositional content."
>
> In the case of some illocutionary acts (e.g. "I bet you five dollars
> that..."), Austin notes that uptake is essential ("Unless the addressee
> supplies
> the "Bet taken", one can hardly be said to have _bet_"). In the case of
> 'thanksgiving', a weak point may be made to the effect that some 'you're
> welcome' is due to take the 'thanksgiving' as having been successfully
> performed, performatively speaking.
>
> And so on.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Speranza
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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