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S.I. Hayakawa and the Use of Danger Indicators of General Semantics

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S.I. Hayakawa and the Use of Danger Indicators of General Semantics South Dakota State University Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1984 S.I. Hayakawa and the Use of Danger Indicators of General Semantics Janine Rae Rudnick Follow this and additional works at: https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd Recommended Citation Rudnick, Janine Rae, "S.I. Hayakawa and the Use of Danger Indicators of General Semantics" (1984). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4233. https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd/4233 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. S. I. HAYAKAWA AND THE USE OF DANGER INDICATORS OF GENERAL SEMANTICS BY JANINE RAE RUDNICK A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Major in Speech South Dakota State University 1984 SOUTH S. I. HAYAKAWA AN D THE USE OF DANGER INDICATORS OF GENERAL SEMANT ICS This thesis is approved as a creditable and independent investigation by a candidate for the degree , Master of Arts , and is acceptable for meeting the thesis requirements for this degree . Ac ceptance of this thesis do es not imply that the conclusions reached by the candidate are necessarily the conc lusions of the major de partment. 'Michael R:'�chliessmann Date Thesis Advisor �u4d�h Zivanovic Date Head, D �artment of Speech ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As I write this: page� I know I have many people to thank for their help, encbu�agement1 and prodding . A big thanks goes to Dr . Michael Schliessmann , whose wisdom and humor helped me through the rough times. His friendship means a great deal to me . A big hug goes to Chuck for the shared experiences at SDSU. He made all of our discussions intere sting , light-hearted , and unpredictable . Thanks also goes to everyone else in the office who helped me along the way: Dr . Hoogestraat , Marty , Dr . Widvey , Dr. Ferguson , and Ila . Thanks , too , to the rest of the staff. Special thanks goes to my family for giving me love and not complaining about the "Professional Student ." JRR TAB LE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. IN TRODUCTION . 1 Statement of Purpose . 1 Previous Studies . 3 Justification for Study 5 Organization of Study . 6 Endnotes . 7 II . BACKGROUND OF STUDY 9 The Biography of S. I. Hayakawa and Expla­ nation of Danger In dicators of General Semantics . 9 Biography of S. I. Hayakawa 9 Danger In dicators of General Semantic s . 13 Endnote s . 25 III. ANALYSIS OF SPEECHES . 27 The App lication of Danger In dicators to Discourses of S. I. Hayakawa . 27 The Application of Danger In dicators to "A Search for Rel evance , 1968!' . 27 The App lication of Danger In dicators to ''Af ter the Canal Treaties" . 3 8 The App lication of Danger In dicators to a Speech to the New England Mutual Life In surance Company . 44 The App lication of Danger In dicators to "Bilingual Education Im provement Ac t" 50 S ummary of the An a lysis of the Four Discourses . 56 Endnotes . 60 IV . SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 63 S ummary of Methodology 63 Summary of Hayakawa•s Biography 63 Summary of General Semantics Danger In dicators . 64 Summary of An alysis . 65 Page Conclusions of Analysis of Discourses 68 Suggestions for Fu rther Research . 71 Endnotes . 72 APPENDIX A . 73 APPENDIX B 78 APPENDIX C 81 APPENDIX D . 96 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 102 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa has had three distinct careers in his lifetime , as a general semanticist, a 1 college president, and a United States Senator . With his book, Language in Action, Hayakawa established a reputation as a pioneer in the development of genera l 2 seman t.1c s. Writings in general semantics and his actions as a president of San Francisco State College and as United States Senator have made Hayakawa known throughout the country as a scholar, administrator and politician . Statement of Purpo se The purpose of this study wa s to examine four dis- courses of general semanticist s. I. Hayakawa to determine if he used danger indicators as presented by J. Samuel Bo1..s 1n t hbke oo , Exp 1.orat1ons 1n"A warene ss. 3 The· dis- courses studied were "A Search for Re l evance , -1968,." given at the International Conference on General Semantics on 4 August 5-9 , 1969; "After the Canal Treaties," written in 5 the New York Time s on October 27, 1977; an address to the New England Mutual Life In surance Company Convention 6 in San Francisco on May 7, 1977; and "Bilingual Education Improvement Ac t., " given to the Subcommittee on Education , 2 Arts and Humanities1 Senate Committee on Labor and Human 7 Resources 1 Washington , D�C. , on April 23 , 1982. The four discourses of s. I. Hayakawa analyzed we re selected because they· present the general semanticist in a variety of situations. Hayakawa gives the discourses to a group of semanticists , the general pub lic through a newspaper article , a group of _in surance representatives, and a senate subcommittee . The discourses also avoid the period when Hayakawa was invo lved in conflict at San Francisco State College . The writer believes the "conflict dis­ courses" are not representative of the ma j ority of Hayakawa 's discourses . In these four discourses , answer to the following questions were sought: 1. Did s. I. Hayakawa use absolute terms , gener­ alities , or words that imply "allness"? 2 . Did s. I. Hayakawa use judgment terms; terms loaded with approval or disapproval? 3. Did s. I Hayakawa use "either-or" arguments or pass from one alternative to its extreme opposite , describ­ ing things in terms of black and white without any gray shading in between? 4 . Did S. I. Hayakawa speak of the present situation as "just like " another one? 3 5 . Did S. I. Hayakawa confuse facts. with inter- pretations.1 opinions7 and judgments that are exclusively his own ? 6. Did s. I. Hayakawa ramb le from one subject to another.? 7. Did s. I. Hayakawa quote authorities to uphold his viewpoints.? These seven danger indicators from J. Samuel Bois deal with written discourse . Bois has presented six 8 othe-r danger indica tors which deal with oral discourse . Because this study deals with written discourse , these six were excluded . Previous Studies The following publications have been examined to determine if any previous investigations have been under- taken regarding s. I. Hayakawa and the use of danger indicators : Auer, J. Jeffrey, "Doc toral Dissertations in Speech : Work s in Progress,n Speech Monographs, annual issues, 1960-1969. Comp rehensive Dissertation Index : Communication and the Arts, 1861-1 972 (Ann Arbor , Michigan : Xerox University Microfilms). Also annual issues. Dissertation Ab stracts International, Xerox Corporation, 1958-1972, 1982-1984 . Humanities Index, Elizabeth G. Pingree (New York : The H. W. Wilson Comapny, 1970-1983) . 4 Index to American Doctoral Dissertations, University Microfilm , Inc . (T he Association of Research Libraries), 1960-1970 . Matlon , Ronald J. , Index to Journals in Communication Studies through 1979, University of Ari zona (S peech Commun ication Assoc iation) . Knower , Fr anklin H. "Graduate Theses: An Index to Graduate Work in Speech ," Speech Monographs (Speech Association of America), annual issues . Silver , H. M. , Master 's Thesis in the Arts and Sciences : 1976-1982 (Cedar Fa lls , Iowa : Research Publication) . In the publication , Index to Journals in Commun ica- tion Studies Through 1979, an article , "The Confrontation Policies of S. I. Hayakawa : A Case Study in Coercive 9 Semantics," by Lawrence B. Rosenfeld wa s found . Upon further inve stigation , it was discovered that this artic le covered Hayakawa 's rhetoric during the confrontations at San Francisco State College and did not deal with discourse other than at that period of time . Some danger indicators were studied , but the extent was minimal . Another article, "On Rereading Language in Action, " by Maxwell H. Goldberg , . 10 dealt with Hayakawa 1s book rather than actions. An unpub lished Ma ster 1 s thesis , "S. I. · Hayakawa 1s Expre ssed Po sitions Regarding Campus Government and Control from November 26 , 1968 to March 20, 1969," by �ichard E. Pletcher , dealt with Hayakawa during his years as president at San Francisco State College . This thesis studied the rhetoric of Hayakawa during the specific 5 period of time only , and did not analyze danger indicators of tha t rhetoric . Justification for Study Many books and articles have been written about general semantics and specific phrases inc luded in genera l semantics study . The books generally have a theme of the meaning of words . Very few books or articles , however, have stressed the importance of J. Samuel Bois ' danger indicators as part of the me aning of words. "Ego state­ 11 12 ments" and "either-or" indicators have been touched upon in books a�d articles , but no one has dedicated significant study to the specific danger indicators as presented by Bois . It is this writer 's belief that the danger indica­ tors of general semantics should be studied more thor­ ougly and analyzed in more applications . The danger indicators inc lude aspects of discourse which many find a s negative fac tors in the message . When the danger indicators are removed , the message may again have the positive effect that wa s originally anticipated . Bois , in Expiorations in Aw�reness, gave a brief explanation of danger indicators , but focused his attention mainly on the six indicators dealing with oral discourse- ­ the "visible" indicators .
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