In a message dated 6/13/2012 5:50:52 P.M. UTC-02, cblists@xxxxxxxx writes: They published "Die Unfähigkeit zu trauern" ("The Inability to Mourn") in 1967, an exploration of Germany's attempts to come to terms with the Second World War in the era of post-war Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Note how German philosophers (etc.) often ignored, to their loss, most of the analyses by J. L. Austin, H. P. Grice, etc. Note that "I mourn" is the performative use of 'mourn'. To apply it to a country in General seems too general and possibly false ("Germany's inability to mourn --" -- No counterexamples? Not one single German speaker who mourned?). The plural forms, "They mourned" can be tricky. Ditto for the plural FIRST person (how can it be a first person PLURAL?): "We mourn" "Mourn" seems to be an individualistic speech act -- and so on. Hence the need to start idiosyncrasically (sic) with individual mourners and then proceed. Yet if it is Margarete Mitscherlich is unable to mourn. Or Alexander Mitscherlich is unable to mourn. Why generalise? Shouldn't they speak for theirselves, rather? And so on. Cheers, Speranza ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html