On Buying A Tie For Grice

I never understood the logical grammar (in English) of colour.

Grice has the examples:

The red pillar is red
The red pillar _seems_ red.

He says that (ii) is otiose but true -- in a scenario where we see that the
pillar box _is_ red.

Later he has the other example.

We need to buy a medium-blue tie for Nick
-- This tie is medium blue
Yes, but it has a touch of green in it in this light
Right -- and it is light blue in this light.

In the second scenario, since, he assumes, 'no real change of color' is in
question, it would be otiose to replace the 'is' (which we don't MEAN) with
the 'seem' which we DO MEAN.

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People have tried to explain to me the spectrum of colours, but I remain a
Berkeleian, unable to see how Dalton could have been so confused about
things to call what he did, "Daltonism".

---

Excellent points by Martha Sherwood and Tom Gulland about the Russian
thing. Indeed, it dawned on me that there was once a query in LINGUIST-L about
this (I should recheck) and I, of all people, provided the "Some remarks
about the senses" reference -- the query was about analogues to the Russian
thing in other languages.

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I was thinking 'rubour'. It doesn't, by the quotes in the OED below, to be
used as a 'verb', but it is a bit like 'redden': "ruborizar" in Spanish
_is_ a verb (to 'blush').

----

of course 'redden' is not very poetic in that the roses don't redden if
they are _already_ red:

OED (-en, "In Eng. these two classes of vbs. can scarcely be discriminated
with precision, but in most cases the intr. sense (as in deepen = ‘become
deeper’) appears to be derived from the trans. sense (as in deepen = ‘make
deeper’)."



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Of course, since I WON'T ADMIT that Russian is a richer language than
English, I'll say, "Next!" -- because in theory, I submit, for 'any' colour
(even Hume's missing shade of blue) there is the corresponding verb, "to
[adj.word], e.g. 'to red' which means 'to be red'.

Indeed, that is the case, the OED reads with

'red, v'

which the OED defines as

"to be red".

which admittedly does not perhaps cast the shade of Russian red in 'to SEEM
red'.

Now the OED gives the following quotes for 'red' as verb meaning 'to be
red' --:

975 Rushw. Gosp. Matt. xvi. 3

To-dæe bi hreanis, reada foron unrotlice e heofun.

1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 330

Nim..hwitne æppel e onne yt ne readie.

1310 in Wright Lyric P. ix. 34

Eyther cheke [is] Whit y-noh ant rode on eke ase rosen when hit redes.

1390 GOWER Conf. II. 7

For oght that is befalle Mai noman do my chekes rede.

1422 tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 168

Muche sholde oure crystyn Prynces reede and be ashamyd.


---
for which I'll provide some modern spelling (to provoke J. Huggins --
friendly):

Today by hreanis, red foron unrotlice e heofun.


Nim..white apple e onne yt now red.

--- this above is so otiose that one wonders why one would
need a verb, 'to red', when 'is red' seems more economical and less
conceptually contrived -- but I should ask Lucy about the swallow:

LUCY: Do you blue, little swallow?
LITTLE SWALLOW: What d'you mean?
LUCY: _Are_ you blue?
LITTLE SWALLOW: Why would _I_ be?
LUCY: I've taken the place of your ancestors.
LITTLE SWALLOW. Oh, never mind. There's plenty of room in the
sky to fly!
And no, I'm not blue. I red.
LUCY: I see. Slightly, in your chest. That is so nice

----


Either cheek is white y-noh and red on eke ase rose when it reds.


For oght that is befalle may noman do my cheeks red.

-- I should note that the OED lumps these usages as meaning 'to be
red' or to BECOME red, which may be the case with the cheeks above.

Much should our Christian princes red and be ashamed.

---- Exactly. Especially, if, as M. Doctorow notes, he doesn't know the
first thing about army management in a time of war.

---- re: rubour

1656 BLOUNT Glossogr., Rubor, shamefac'dness, redness, blushing. 1657
TOMLINSON Renou's Disp. 202 The Sinapism..should be often looked at, to see if
it have contracted rubour enough by its admotion. a1734 NORTH Examen III.
vii. §78 (1740) 563 Mr. Justice Jones,..when much offended, often shewed his
Heats in a Rubor of his Countenance. 1794 COLERIDGE Lett. (1895) I. 87 He
is obliged to drink three bottles of claret a day in order to acquire a
stationary rubor. 1866 Treas. Bot. 995/1 Rubor, redness of any sort. 1886 FAGGE
Princ. & Pract. Med. I. 57 Hæmorrhages also play an important part in the
production of rubor.