[OSList] : Speech acts

Daniel Mezick dan at newtechusa.net
Sat Oct 26 11:06:41 PDT 2013 

Howdy Harrison,
This background story on the "wonderful internal contradiction" does 
explain the curiously dissonant sentence structure of "Be prepared to be 
surprised."

"Be prepared to be surprised" is a directive, a structure that is 
dissonant and might even be in conflict with the concepts of 
self-management, self-governance, self-organization et al.

I have been studying, arranging and facilitating OST meetings for over 5 
years, and I just noticed this curious fact for the 1st time.

Probably something to do with the books I'm reading lately.

And this guy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Austin
Austin pointed out that we use language to /do/ things as well as to 
/assert/ things, and that the utterance of a statement like "I promise 
to do so-and-so" is best understood as /doing/ something — /making a 
promise/ — rather than making an assertion about anything. Hence the 
name of one of his best-known works: "How to do Things with Words".

Kind Regards,
Dan

On 10/26/13 11:38 AM, Michael M Pannwitz wrote:
> you couldnt, because you are already dead
> mmp
>
> On 26.10.2013 17:35, Harrison Owen wrote:
>> Actually Dan – it is and always has been a serious joke, with (I think)
>> a wonderful internal contradiction. If you were really prepared to be
>> surprised, you couldn’t be surprised... or could you J
>>
>> ho
>>
>> Harrison Owen
>>
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>> *From:*oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
>> [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] *On Behalf Of *Daniel 
>> Mezick
>> *Sent:* Saturday, October 26, 2013 9:18 AM
>> *To:* oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
>> *Subject:* [OSList] : Speech acts
>>
>> When responding to Jenifer's thoughts earlier, I realized:
>>
>> The slogan "Be Prepared to Be Surprised" is a most interesting one in 
>> OST.
>>
>> It is actually an illocutionary speech act.... of type "*/Directive/*".
>>
>> So, located here in OST, baked into it, we have a specific slogan that
>> is attempting to *cause* the hearer to take a particular action, e.g. a
>> request, *commands* and advice. A directive!
>>
>> I wonder if the undeniably directive structure of "Be Prepared to Be
>> Surprised" really aligned with the intention/spirit/philosophy of OST.
>>
>> Dan
>>
>>
>> Background links:
>>
>> What is a speech act?
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_acts
>> A */speech act/* in linguistics
>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics> and the philosophy of
>> language <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_language> is an
>> utterance that has performative function in language and communication.
>>
>> What is an illocutionary act?
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illocutionary_act
>> *Illocutionary act* is a term in linguistics
>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics> introduced by the philosopher
>> John L. Austin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Austin> in his
>> investigation of the various aspects of speech acts
>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_acts>.
>>
>> What is a Directive illocutionary act?
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illocutionary_act#Classes_of_illocutionary_acts 
>>
>> *directives* = speech acts that are to *cause the hearer to take a
>> particular action*, e.g. requests, commands and advice
>>
>> More than you asked for:
>> What is a Commissive speech act?
>> *commissives* = speech acts that commit a speaker to some future action,
>> e.g. promises and oaths
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 10/24/13 1:29 PM, Jenifer Toksvig wrote:
>>
>>     Dan wrote: >> Consider the man who loves a certain woman, and waits
>>     for the current trend of her interest in him to change. He is goal
>>     seeking without controlling. Likewise, trend-following market
>>     traders do not attempt to create, control or make trends. They
>>     simply identify & ride them, while seeking wealth. <<
>>
>>     Waiting and seeking are still forms of controlling. Your loving man
>>     has chosen to wait for his goal rather than (to coin a phrase) being
>>     prepared to be surprised by another woman. He may not be trying to
>>     control her, but he’s still trying to control the situation in a way
>>     that he thinks will allow him to achieve his goal.
>>
>>     Those who seek wealth do likewise: they don’t randomly ride the
>>     trends, they identify them and make choices about how to ride them,
>>     in order to obtain wealth. That is control.
>>
>>     I don’t think it’s possible to be goal-oriented and try to exert
>>     some kind of control over the process, unless your goal is… to have
>>     no goal. Actually, even being prepared to be surprised is a goal. A
>>     sort of wonderfully ridiculous one.
>>
>>     Jen x
>>
>>     *Jenifer Toksvig
>>     *www.acompletelossforwords.com 
>> <http://www.acompletelossforwords.com>
>>
>>     *The Copenhagen Interpretation
>>     *www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk
>>     <http://www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>> -- 
>>
>> Daniel Mezick, President
>>
>> New Technology Solutions Inc.
>>
>> (203) 915 7248 (cell)
>>
>> Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog
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-- 

Daniel Mezick, President

New Technology Solutions Inc.

(203) 915 7248 (cell)

Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog 
<http://newtechusa.net/blog/>. Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>.

Examine my new book:The Culture Game 
<http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>: Tools for the 
Agile Manager.

Explore Agile Team Training 
<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/> and Coaching. 
<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/>

Explore the Agile Boston <http://newtechusa.net//user-groups/ma/>Community.

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