Eric wrote:
Mike: If I tell a joke with the intention of making my listener laugh -- and she > does -- how is that less performative than "Congratulations"?
Judging from what Robert wrote, the "jokes" would all have to go something like, "Laugh, dammit!" Though perhaps dialect could also be used, as in, "Zees iss a choke und you vill now all laugh."
I don't think even that would do it. (I already wrote Mike about this but I see
that unlike last time, my note went only to him.) The short answer is that iftelling a joke were a performative it wouldn't matter whether anyone laughed or not anymore than it would make any difference whether someone wept upon hearing
(for real) 'I now pronounce you man and wife,' or applauded at a ship christening. The deed is done as soon as the words are said. No need to waitaround for the effect. The utterance contains its own effect, like God. (I like
that conceit so much I'm shamelessly using it twice.) Robert Paul Department of Special Effects Mutton College ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html