The medium, the channel and the message: technologies of mind and matter in the current

meaning of mode

David G. Butt

Associate Professor

Centre for Language in Social Life

Macquarie University

J.R. Firth. A Synopsis of Linguistic Theory, 1930-1955Studies in Linguistic Analysis. Blackwell, Oxford 1957/62.

‘Every scientific discipline must necessarily develop a special language adapted to its nature, and that development represents an essential part of scientific work.’

[and following]

… To be really alive you must feel this active personal interest in what is going on, and your speech must serve your natural familiarity with your surroundings.

… The voice of man is one component in a whole postural scheme …

Our ears are actively interested in what is going on.

The matrix of experience:firstly, the interior relations connected with the text itself;

second, the main set of situational relations-

(a) the interior relations with the context of situation;

(b) analytic relations set up between parts of the text … and special constituents, items, objects, persons or events within the situation.

Renewal of connection:

… in renewal of connection … an observable and justifiable grouped set of events in the run of experience.

… Instances of such context of situation are attested by experience.

Effective observable results:

Some might prefer to characterize situations by attempting a description of speech and language functions with reference to their effective observable results, and perhaps also with a reference to a linguistically centred social analysis.

Cultural matrix of the texts:

… Notional terms are permissible at this level. … The abstraction here called context of situation does not deal with mere ‘sense’ or with thoughts. It is not a description of the environment. It is a set of categories in ordered relations abstracted from the life of man in the flux of events, from personality in society.

Every analysis of any particular language must of necessity determine the values of the ad hoc categories to which traditional names are given. …

… The exponents of prosodic and of grammatical categories may be continuous or discontinuous, discrete or cumulative. The general idea underlying such analyses is the mutual expectancy of the parts and the whole, rather than a unidirectional sequence of successive linear segments.

Mind in societyThe internalization of cultural forms of behaviour involves the reconstruction of psychological activities on the basis of sign operations. Psychological processes as they appear in animals actually cease to exist: they are incorporated into this system of behaviour and are culturally reconstituted and developed to form a new psychological entity. The use of external signs is also radically reconstructed. The developmental changes in sign operations are akin to those that occur in language. Aspects of external or communicative speech, as well as ego-centric speech, turn ‘inward’ to become the basis of inner speech.

The internalization of socially rooted and historically developed activities is the distinguishing feature of human psychology, the basis of the qualitative leap from animal to human psychology. (Vygotsky 1978: 57)

Butt 2003; based on Hasan 1985

Role of Language (Butt 2003)

ROLE OF LANGUAGE

ROLE OF LANGUAGE

Channel (Butt 2003)

Channel:

MEDIUM

The Chamber Playsfrom Morgan, Margery. (1985). August Strindberg.  

The final development in Strindberg’s art as a dramatist came about in the group of plays he wrote specifically for the repertoires of this Intimate Theatre: Storm, The Burned House, Ghost Sonata, The Pelican and a Christmas piece, The Black Glove. In calling them chamber plays, he associated his and Falck’s theatre project with Max Reinhardt’s contemporary opening of the Kammerspielhaus (chamber playhouse) in Berlin, as well as suggesting that these works have a dramatic equivalence to chamber music. Although only Ghost Sonata declares in its title the symbolist cultivation of musical form, Strindberg referred to the whole group as his late sonatas, perhaps inviting comparison with those of Beethoven.

In some respects they are more obviously designed for a repertory company than for a studio theatre. They call for unexpectedly large casts, despite their otherwise concentrated quality, and require careful direction of the whole rather than a focus on one or two star roles. Furthermore, their settings offer problems for a small stage which demand imaginative solutions; indeed, they were hardly solved at Intiman, though hindsight persuaded Strindberg that radically simplified staging might hold the answer. One of his declared intentions, at the opening of the little theatre, was to challenge the substitution of length for intensity in the fashionable programmes of the day. (He was sympathetic to the good bourgeois couples who wanted to get home to bed at a reasonable hour.) The chamber plays are shorter than the usual three-act play, but sufficiently demanding of audience attention and response to occupy the whole of an evening’s bill without short-changing their patrons. To the actors in the company he explained his concept of a drama constructed on the basis of a single strong theme, which the playwright could choose to treat in any way he wished, without regard for theatrical custom and convention, but only for a unity of form and style with his central idea.

In clauses …1.1 The final development in Strindberg’s art as a dramatist came about in the group of plays [[he wrote specifically for the repertoires of this Intimate Theatre:]] Storm, The

Burned House, Ghost Sonata, The Pelican and a Christmas piece, The Black Glove.

2.1 In calling them chamber plays,

2.2 he associated his and Falck’s theatre project with Max Reinhardt’s contemporary opening of the Kammerspielhaus (chamber playhouse) in Berlin,

2.3 as well as suggesting

2.4 that these works have a dramatic equivalence to chamber music.

3.1 Although only Ghost Sonata declares in its title the symbolist cultivation of musical form,

3.2 Strindberg referred to the whole group as his late sonatas,

3.3 perhaps inviting comparison with those of Beethoven.

4.1 In some respects they are more obviously designed for a repertory company than for a studio theatre.

5.1 They call for unexpectedly large casts, despite their otherwise concentrated quality,

5.2 and ^THEY require careful direction of the whole rather than a focus on one or two star roles.

6.1 Furthermore, their settings offer problems for a small stage [[which demand imaginative solutions;]]

6.2 indeed, they were hardly solved at Intiman,

6.3 though hindsight persuaded Strindberg

6.4 that radically simplified staging might hold the answer.

7.1 One of his declared intentions, at the opening of the little theatre, was [[to challenge the substitution of length for intensity in the fashionable programmes of the day.]]

8.1 (He was sympathetic to the good bourgeois couples [[who wanted to get home to bed at a reasonable hour]].)

9.1 The chamber plays are shorter than the usual three-act play,

9.2 but ^THEY ^ARE sufficiently demanding of audience attention and response to occupy the whole of an evening’s bill without short-changing their patrons.

10.1 To the actors in the company he explained his concept of a drama constructed on the basis of a single strong theme,

10.2 which the playwright could choose to treat in any way [[he wished]], without regard for theatrical custom and convention, but only for a unity of form and style with his central idea.

Shape of Cohesive chains (chamber plays)