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On the Bidimensionality of Speech
Finitude, flirting, and copiers
Everything spoken exists across two dimensions: the content of the speech, and the context of the speech.
The content of the speech is the what of what is said. It consists of the message being conveyed: what is pointed to by the speech.
The context of the speech is the why of what is said. It consists of the pursuit of speaking: what is accomplished by the speech.
We can call the first dimension of speech the statement, and the second dimension the enunciation.
That everything spoken exists as both a statement and an enunciation is an essential consequence of human existence: that speech always occurs in a specific and finite circumstance.
Examples
To understand this better, let’s consider two examples that seem to exist on opposite ends of the spectrum:
- Speech where the statement is primary
- Speech where the enunciation is primary
Speech where the statement is primary would be, for example, a technical manual. When a person writes a manual on how to fix a copier, what they convey has little to do with who they are and who they address. Its function is only to convey information.
