[lit-ideas] Thanksgiving: An Illocutionary Approach
- From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:53:55 -0500 (EST)
Geary wrote:
"Happy Thanksgiving -- unless, of course, you're an American Indian --
in which case, I apologize on behalf of European Civilization but I'm
damn glad we won -- mighty pretty country. Sorry about them
Reservations. I know living in dust ain't so very much fun."
----
In "The Foundations of Illocutionary Logic", Searle and Vanderveken
provide an analysis of "thank" that may apply.
They distinguish between ´rhetic´ oratio-obliqua reports of "thank":
¨"He thanked her for her hospitality."
From illocutionary first-person proper "thanks" giving.
"I thank thee."
In general, the "give", in "thanksGIVing", is regarded, by
illocutionary logicians, as redundant ("In what ways to "give thank"
replaces "thank" _simpliciter_").
Ultimately, Searle´s and Vanderveken´s approach relies on Grice. It´s
the _intention_ (on the part of the utterer of "I thank thee") that
counts. Thus, a report may contradict an illocutionary use:
"He thought he was thanking her, but he wasn´t -- he clearly had no
"thanksgiving" intention to match his phatic act".
----
Geary:
"Happy Thanksgiving -- unless, of course, you're an American Indian"
If I am right -- vide "Thanksgiving for 1621", a book published by the
Plymouth museum -- "American Indians", as Geary calls them, WERE
involved in this 3-day festival of harvest that Bradford and his
fellows, and some of the native Americans they interacted with, called
"thanksgiving".
(Oddly, in Turkey, talking of "Indians", the turkey is not called
"Turkey" -- or its local variant --, but "Hindi" -- vide wiki,
"gallopavo silvestris").
"Happy Thanksgiving -- unless, of course, you're an American Indian --
in which case, I apologize on behalf of European Civilization but I'm
damn glad we won -- mighty pretty country. Sorry about them
Reservations. I know living in dust ain't so very much fun."
The next point is the application of "happy" to "give thank". "I
happily thank thee". And so on.
Cheers,
Speranza
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