[lit-ideas] "Bless you": a performative?
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 23:09:59 EDT
In a message dated 8/5/2004 10:33:05 AM Eastern Standard Time,
atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
>"Bless you" is not a performative, but a petition.
>It is what I've famously termed an
>ellipsistical. It means:
>
> "May God bless you
>
>[and have mercy on your rancid soul."]
>The idea of mere humans having the power to bless is
>blasphemous and smacks of Popery. Hope
>this straightens this out this time.
It does.
Still, ...
Double-checking with the OED, I notice that while there's no explicit
reference to the (ritual of uttering 'Bless you') after a sneeze, there is a
reference to (Geary's) ellipsisticals:
'bless you'
"Elliptical uses"
elliptically "bless (also "save") the mark!" (see 'mark')
--- where the use of 'bless', the OED has it, is:
"to protect or guard, save, keep from (evil):
said of God, supernatural influence,
a charm or prayer; also loosely of other things."
But there is also, the OED notes, an elliptical use corresponding to usage:
"bless: to confer well-being upon; â??to make happy;
to prosper, make successfulâ?? (Jonson): orig. said of God;
in later use also of men and things, but generally with
an implication of their conferring instrumentally a
divine blessing. (Here the association of 'bless' with
'bliss' becomes apparent.)
--- (a perhaps minor question here, but to the point we're discussing is
whether what the OED has as an 'implication' is not really a 'performative
implicature', as I, but Geary does not, prefer).
The important point, however, being: what the OED makes explicit in the
ellipsis: "as "(God) bless you""
Note that the ellipsis can occur with objects other than 'you' (e.g. "Bless
my soul", see quotes).
The quotes the OED gives for this ellipsisticals fall within two groups. For
the first relevant use of 'bless' being:
1646 _MILTON_ Sonn. xi. 5
"[May God] bless us!"
1709 _STEELE_ Tatler No. 25 10
"[May God] Bless me!"
1844 _DICKENS_ Mart. Chuz. v. 50
â??[May God] Bless my life!â??"
1849 Dav. Copp. xii. 138
â??[May God] Bless the man."
1851 _RUSKIN_ King Gold. Riv. i. (1856) 12
â??[May God] Bless my soul!â??"
For the second relevant use:
1732 Fielding Miser v i 1775 67
"[May God] Bless her heart!"
1840 _MARRYAT_ Poor Jack xxix,
"[May God] Bless you, my child"
1872 _RUSKIN_ Fors Clav. II. xx. 8
"The Colonel might have said â??[May God] Bless you,
my children,â??"
----
I wonder if in Hebrew the [grammatical] subject [of 'bless'] can be omitted,
like (in English) that. Doubt it.
Cheers,
JL
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