Relationship: An immaterial reality

In their book, Magna Carta Latina (The Privilege of Singing, Articulating and Reading a Language and of Keeping It Alive), Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy and Ford Lewis Battles discuss what articulation means in terms of language.  Importantly, they understand that speech is not merely a device for attracting attention and eliciting a mere response. This would be what Percy talks about in terms of a dyadic relation of cause and effect.

According to Rosenstock-Huessy and Battles (1975:14), when some one speaks to another one, they are saying something like, “Listen!”. And, the second one responses to the first one by saying, either literally or in effect, “I am listening.” Each of the ones becomes involved in a pairing through an event which is neither visible nor audible as is the case when two computers “handshake” as a condition for “communication” between them.

The event of pairing is not to be found in the words as it is with the data “handshake” of the computer. While the possibility of pairing is signaled by the words, it is not effected by the words themselves. Still, the event of the human pairing is just as, if not more, real than the words whether uttered or written.

A few important things are happening here. In the first place, someone is seeking to set up a relationship with another. This person means for something to happen and he or sheknows that this is what is meant. Secondly, another person signals that they know what is meant and that they are ready to take the role of a listener. Something is shared that both parties acknowledge.

Finally, indicating that he or she is listening to the other maintains the identity of the listener. An “I” is listening to a “you”. There is a relationship between a first and a second that is mediated by a third, a mutual understanding. You cannot see this mutual understanding and you cannot hear it; but, you know that it exists in its effects. Further, the relationship is also mediated by a mutual commitment to collaboration or cooperation. There is a responsibility that is undertaken by each one.

The authors make an important point:

A sentence is a personal relation between answerable people. Articulated speech is communication between responsible people. (Rosenstock-Huessy and Battles 1975:15)

As far was we know, in the whole universe, there is only one species that can create such relationships. We can say of people that they are answerable to each other because of their shared understanding of how things are or could be. We are beings who are responsible to and for each other.