Abstract
This paper uses the cultural scripts method (Goddard and Wierzbicka 2004) to develop a set of scripts which are proposed to articulate some of the sociopragmatic knowledge held by the speech community popularly known as the Mormons, and officially known as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). These scripts focus on the value that Mormons place on using feelings as the best and ultimate form of evidence for verifying the truth of anything related to their religious beliefs, and they are proposed to account for the linguistic behavior of Mormons in relation to their knowledge claims, in relation to their stated source of this knowledge, and in relation to their sense of duty to cause others to acquire this knowledge. The scripts in this chapter are supported by linguistic evidence, which comes primarily from the discourse of respected members of the LDS community. The online searches for evidence and the formulation of the scripts were guided by my intuitive knowledge as an L1 speaker of “Mormonese,” having been born and raised within the Mormon community. Basing beliefs on feelings is a value that most cultures and individuals possess to some degree, and the things that are “proven” by one’s feelings to be true will vary depending on the specific belief system of the culture or individual. I refer to this phenomenon as culturally-constructed visceral evidentiality (CVE). The LDS community overtly articulates the value of visceral evidentiality to an unusual degree, so this speech community provides an excellent opportunity for analyzing the characteristics of a specific case of CVE.
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Notes
- 1.
The Spirit is also said to be a source of comfort during difficult times, such as after the death of a loved one. When this comfort is presented merely as helping one to get through this difficult time, then it is not related to this chapter. However, comfort from the Spirit is often presented as a source of knowledge that, for example, one will be reunited in the afterlife with the loved one who just passed away. Or it could be as simple as letting them know that things will be all right. In this sense, Mormons are verbally claiming that the comforting feeling of the Spirit is giving them knowledge, and in such cases these speech acts are directly related to this chapter.
- 2.
The Mormon Church is almost always referred to by Mormons as “the Church,” preceded by the definite article and capitalized when written. This is always understood to refer to the Mormon Church rather than any other church.
- 3.
15,082,028 members are claimed at “Facts and Statistics,” Mormon Newsroom (Accessed August 1, 2014): http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-stats. However, David Campbell said the Church’s membership claim “includes everyone who has ever been a member—even babies—and hasn’t been excommunicated or asked to have their names removed from the rolls” (Stack 2012). In other words, the LDS Church does not use the more meaningful and more conventional method of only counting people who self-identify as Mormons.
- 4.
See footnote 5 regarding its status as a Christian sect.
- 5.
I believe it is primarily this story of the Mormon restoration, which includes literal, direct physical communication with God the Father, Jesus Christ, and other biblical figures that has caused many Christian sects to consider The Mormon Church blasphemous and to refuse to recognize it as a Christian sect. The LDS Church’s nontraditional concept of the Godhead being three separate personages, and its claim of exclusive authority to speak for God and to act in God’s name, are also difficult for other Christian sects to accept.
- 6.
The statue of an angel blowing a horn seen on top of every Mormon temple is the angel Moroni.
- 7.
A Mormon bishop is a man who is roughly equivalent to a Protestant pastor or minister. He is an unpaid, untrained member of the ward who is “called” by the Church’s leaders to serve as bishop for a period of time.
- 8.
The rules about missions are adjusted periodically, and recently Mormon boys have been given the option to go at 18 years of age instead 19. Girls have never been commanded to serve missions, but have always been told they have the option to go. Their age of service was also recently lowered from 21 to 19, and they serve for 18 months rather than 2 years.
- 9.
The URL of the glossary is: http://packham.n4m.org/glossary.htm, and the URL of the official Mormon website with a search function is: www.lds.org.
- 10.
Cowley, Matthias F. 1902. Conference Report, April, p. 72.
- 11.
Mormon adults are addressed by other Mormons using the titles Brother and Sister, followed by their surname. All women are addressed as Sisters, but men who hold positions of authority are addressed as Elder, Bishop, or President, depending on the position they hold.
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Wakefield, J. (2016). Emotional Feelings as a Form of Evidence: A Case Study of Visceral Evidentiality in Mormon Culture. In: Capone, A., Mey, J. (eds) Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society. Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12616-6_35
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