Grice was confused, as most SHOULD be, about that silly paradox by Moore,
"It is raining, but I don't believe it".
The fact that he (Moore) was a Cambridge professor of philosophy worsened things ("Aren't philosophy professors," my mother remarks, "supposed to be thinking SERIOUSLY?").
For Grice elleism SEEMED to solve the paradox.
"G. E. Moore thinks that it is not raining but he says that it is".
_sounds_ less of a paradox.
"The question, however," Grice comments, "is why one would like to refer to his-self in the third person, though".
Etc
JL
---
From the OED
illeism [f. L. ille that man, he: after egoism.] Excessive use of the pronoun
he (either in reference to another person or to oneself in the third
person).
1809-10 COLERIDGE Friend (1818) I. 36
For one piece of egotism..there are fifty that steal out in the mask of
tuisms and ille-isms.
1817 Biog. Lit. 4
An index expurgatorius of certain well known and ever returning phrases,
both introductory and transitional, including the large assortment of modest
egotisms and flattering illeisms.
So illi, one who makes much use of the pronoun he, or writes of himself
as he.
1832 Blackw. Mag. XXXII. 241
Your intense egotist cunningly avoids the use of the first personal pronoun.
He is, in fact, an Ille-ist.
Monday, February 8, 2010
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