Confirming Completion: Is It Done or Not?

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Donna from Redwood City, California.

Hey, Donna, we’re glad to have you. What’s up?

So I work in an office environment up here, and a lot of our business is conducted over email.

And I noticed a trend that made me wonder about the use of a common word, because I’ve gotten emails like this from several different people.

Usually a one-line email and something to the effect of confirming the supplies will be delivered on Tuesday or confirming there is enough funding to purchase the new furniture.

And the first few times I got an email like this, I thought, well, gee, thanks for that update, but let me know when you’re sure of that information because I read it that they’re currently in the process of working on the question and they’ve yet to ensure that that thing will actually really happen.

And then I realized after that they’re usually trying to say that it is a done deal. They’re meaning, yes, it is confirmed that the supplies will be delivered on Tuesday, but it’s almost like they’re using the word confirmation referring to the thought of communicating the information, not about the actual action.

So I was wondering, am I misunderstanding or misinterpreting the use of the word or the tense, or maybe it’s shifted over time?

What you have described is almost a textbook case of intention versus reception conflict.

I could put this in a textbook and it would be classic because what we’re talking about here is caused by ellipsis where certain words are omitted.

So in this case, they say confirming X will happen.

They have left off the subject.

You know, I am confirming.

They left off the copula, which is am.

And that increases the chance that you’re going to misunderstand.

But linguists talk about this in a lot of different ways, but here what we’re talking about is a performative use of the present participle, that ing word.

And the conflict here is that you were reading it as a constative utterance, and that means you’re interpreting it as a statement that describes the state of affairs that the sender is currently in the process of confirming, of verifying, where the sender, on the other hand, intends it as a performative utterance, where the statement itself is the act of confirmation.

You’re reading it differently because they mean I have confirmed and you’re reading it as I’m still in the process of confirming.

But it doesn’t fall on you and it doesn’t fall on the sender, this disagreement or this friction, it falls on English because English is complicated, all languages.

And so it falls on this mode of speech we have in the office where we use ellipsis.

We might just say noted.

Now, when somebody points something out, instead of saying, I have noted your thoughts.

Or we might say approved instead of, I have reviewed this and it is approved, right?

Or requesting update or advising that or tax please fine.

All of these, we leave off the subject and often the copula, the form of the to be verb.

Right.

It’s interesting because even if you say, I am confirming the supplies will be delivered, it still leaves that doubt for me.

It feels a little bit better and it feels a little bit more like, okay, they’re telling me, yes, it’s confirmed.

But still, eh, not sure.

Donna, thank you so much for this interesting little dilemma.

We appreciate it.

Thanks for the call.

I love the show.

Thanks so much.

Bye-bye.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

Well, maybe other people have suggestions for how to make that really, really, really super clear.

I have established that the meeting will occur on Tuesday.

I don’t know.

Martha, I am confirming that you’re about to say our phone number.

I am indeed.

Yes, that is confirmed.

877-929-9673.