[OSList] : Speech acts

Sat Oct 26 11:26:51 PDT 2013

Dan you are totally correct. The sentence structure is a mess. I knew that
when I said it, and said it intentionally... to make a point: "Opening" an
OST is a serious joke. It is serious because useful good stuff happens, and
it is a joke because we don't really open anything. It already is (open).
What we do do is playfully remind people of what they already know, but may
have forgotten. Emphasis: playfully. Law, Principles, and Final Admonition,
all best done with a smile 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 2:07 PM
To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Subject: Re: [OSList] : Speech acts

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 

7808 River Falls Dr. 

Potomac, MD 20854 

USA 

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer) 

Camden, Maine 04843 

Phone 301-365-2093 

(summer)  207-763-3261 

www.openspaceworld.com <www.openspaceworld.com%20> 

www.ho-image.com <www.ho-image.com%20> (Personal Website) 

To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of 
OSLIST Go 
to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org 

*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>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics> and the philosophy of 
language  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics> introduced by the philosopher 
John L. Austin  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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>
<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>
<http://www.acompletelossforwords.com> 

    *The Copenhagen Interpretation 
    *www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk 
     <http://www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk>
<http://www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk> 

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