If we had obligatory performative markers in tp, what'd they look like?

Tinkerers Anonymous: Some people can't help making changes to "fix" Toki Pona. This is a playground for their ideas.
Tokiponidistoj: Iuj homoj nepre volas fari ŝanĝojn por "ripari" Tokiponon. Jen ludejo por iliaj ideoj.
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janMato
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If we had obligatory performative markers in tp, what'd they look like?

Post by janMato »

If we had obligatory performative markers in tp, what would they look like?
Performative: "Performativity is a term for the capacity of speech and communication not simply to communicate but rather to act or consummate an action, or to construct and perform an identity"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performativity
I'm reading Buddhist texts again and we have a few scenarios:

"The Amida vowed to take everyone to his Pure Land (after their death)." And so it is true, according to PL believers. Vows are definitely being treated as performatives here.

"I have faith in the Gohonzon (the Nichiren Mandala) to transform my life." And so it is true, according to Nichiren believers. These statements of faith sure feel like performatives, but I can't tell.

"I have decided espresso tastes better than drip coffee" Also, performative looking, in an area where there isn't a lot of objective criteria, a choice has been made.

I can sort of see how a vow could be performative. If I say, I'm going to make make brownies, it's reasonably true, with minor details like me not following through, the smaller the task, the more trivial the uncertainty part is, so "it shall be done!" is more like a performative.

It seems like obligatory performatives would help to distinguish when people say something is true because they are making it true and when they are saying something is true because they are going to make it true, or it is true because of some other reason, like pigheadedly ignoring evidence to the contrary.

mi lon e ni: tomo tawa pakala li kama pona sin.

tenpo kama la tan kama mi la tomo tawa pakala li pona sin lon.

wawa nimi mi la sina tu li kulupu mama pi meli en mije.
janKipo
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Re: If we had obligatory performative markers in tp, what'd they look like?

Post by janKipo »

Bodhisattvas cheat, of course, since everyone is the pure land (or better) already; they just haven't noticed yet. And it is not clear that even Avalokateshvara saying so will get them to notice. (This is not anti-Buddhist, since exactly the same thing is true in Christianity -- we live in the City of God, but -- this is Sin -- we don't notice and don't act it.) Clear cases of performatives (all from Austin, I think) are judges saying --at the appropriate point in a trial -- "I sentence you to ...." and certified marriers saying "I now pronounce you man and wife" (or "spice" or whatever) at the appropriate point in the appropriate proceedings. Also, saying "I promise to ...." Typically, then, what you can do with words (great title!) has to do with social relations and does not change physical facts (fix cars, say), so is about rights, duties and the like. There are always a list of conditions. usually an explicit one with some implicit additions available if the need arises, so the mere saying of the words is not enough. But it is still significant to have a formula, even if it does not have to be followed exactly (or even completed, as countless marriage cases over the last millennium have shown). And, of course, once we have the system in place, we can imagine what it would be like to extend it to other realms of reality than social constructs. That is, what if we really could fix cars, etc.?
The formula seems to require a person in a suitable situation (specified) saying that that person is performing the act: sentencing, pronouncing (although this case is subject to a lot of controversy), promising, etc.and sincerely intending to perform the act by doing this speechifying (there is a lot of room for lawsuits in this, but forget them for the moment). So the form is "I (hereby) perform this transformation....". Since the transformation is propositional, the toki pona format is 'mi pali/kama e ni:' followed by a sentence that sums the matter up: 'mije ni en meli ni li wan', 'sina li kama ko lon tomo awen' 'mi pana sin e lipu sina' or, eventually 'toma tawa sina li pona' (magical lemon aid)
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