Language, Ediction, and Motivation

Edicts illustrate the motivational function of Language, to which theories that treat Language as an inert object can be oblivious. Some of the alternatives to that treatment at least implicitly aim to re-accommodate that function--in Wittgenstein's basic Language-Game, an utterance is a prompt to action; Austin's Illocutionary Acts are attempts on the part of a speaker to induce an audience in some respect or another; Cassirer's studies of primitive Language demonstrate its original efficacy, i. e. magic words, animal interjections, a child's cries. Even where Language is recognized as a medium, it is often reified. In such cases, it is construed as serving as an envelope in which a thought can be be packaged for transmission, to be discarded upon receipt. However, such a model does not account for the process of transmission, in contrast with e. g. copper as medium that conducts electricity, in analogy with which Ediction is a charged process, in which Language is a conductive medium. As motivating, Ediction is indefinite, made definite by the formation of specific words. That is, the Meaning component of Language is its motivational dimension made determinate.