---- L. J. Kramer, in his comment on "Headlines: Griceanly analysed" mentions the general issue with headlines -- Gricean?
--- O. T. O. H., this from worldwide words (c) M. Quinion, with a view at what I'll call the "Ignorant Gricean": not Quinion, but the 'persona' that Russ Lynch is parodying:
"I waited and waited but
she never did sit down,"
e-mailed Russ Lynch.
He was referring to a sign at
the entrance to a restaurant
in Hawaii:
"Please wait for Hostess to be seated".
----
I've never been to Hawaii, alas, but I've seen them. Some of them do not have English as a third language. But this is a bit too much. I think of Lynch.
Lynch has a PhD of Chomsky from the Chomsky:
Please, wait for Hostess to be seated.
----- parsing:
"Please", addressed to Addresse.
YOU wait FOR (sub-clause)
Hostess (female) to
sit.
cfr. Chomsky, "She is eager to please"
--- But the Lynch persona cannot be so _thick_. So the point of this 'ignorant Griceanisms' are "anti-Griceanisms" in nature:
You read something.
You understand it perfectly.
You parse it, with a view to find this amusing (cfr. "The Maxims of Blog: enlight".
Etc.
---
JLS
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Maybe there's an example right outside your library door:
ReplyDeletePrivate Pool
No Swimming Allowed.
-------------
Private Pool [?]
No[.] Swimming Allowed.
Well, yes.
ReplyDelete---
But let's revise the goal behind.
I can imagine someone being _thick_ and reading:
Wait for hostess to be seated.
--- The interpretation Lynch provides is stupid, because it's not rational to go to a restaurant and wait for the hostess to be seated: I mean, they are _geishas_, right? They work for a living. If I organise a party, as I often do, and my mother is hostess (at the villa) as she often is, then:
wait for the hostess to be seated
does make sense. But in a Hawaiian diner?
---
The
Private Pool
No Swimming Allowed
---
of course _does_ make Gricean sense. According to Neale, and Atlas, Grice felt very depressed in his later years (his later 25 years, say) because of the thesis of semantic externalism (I don't think so). For he was shown that most of what we say is 'implicated' in some way or other. He was very _liberal_ as to what counts as "saying" (and I follow him). So here I would take the sign to SAY:
Privately owned pool.
No Swimming allowed by other
than its private
owners of their friends.
---- I used to bike _a lot_ in Sachem's Head (when I lived in Guilford) and would often come across very similar notes: but I enjoyed them! First, because the area is big enough and you do find little coves and things where you can swim at ease, etc.
Now, perhaps the writer of the sign could have been more careful.
It strikes me that that is too much of a public pool, though (in spite of the oxymoronic 'private'). Sachem Head, the pleasure of it, because this is CT, the Constitution State, is that it's Not a Gated Community -- The Old Quarry, next to it, towards the NW (also on the water), is -- and I'd never bike there, because the good bits were just 'closed', as one sadly finds out after biking for half a mile.
So I cannot imagine the scenery of the 'sign':
"private pool: no swimming allowed".
I guess it's a big enough extension, where people can walk by, or something, find the pool, and wonder.
--- Mind, "pool" is sometimes misused. I used to live not far from "Village Pondside" in Guilford (or Pondside Village, rather) -- "Village Pond Road" is one of them, and it gets you through a lovely pond -- the village pond, as it happens. And it's not a swimming pool, but it _seems_ to be a private pond.
I.e. a friend of mine is a member of the Pondside Village Association, so I _know_ it's privately kept. But they did allow people (etc. -- Canadian (geese), too) to swim occasionally.
The problem is frogs. For while a Canadian (goose) is expected to be at least bilingual, a frog won't.