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"Somewhere in the South of France"
Grice has an utterer uttering thereby implicating something _loose_ as she should:
From wiki:
"[T]he South of France [...] is a loosely defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Gironde, Spain, the Mediterranean Sea, Italy, and Switzerland south of the Jura Mountains [and including] Aquitaine, Midi-Pyrénées, Languedoc-Roussillon, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Corsica, Rhone-Alpes. The area corresponds in large part to Occitania; that to say, the territory in which Occitan (French: langue d'oc)—as distinct from the langues d'oïl of northern France—was historically the dominant language. The name le Midi derives from mi (middle) and di (day) in Old French; compare Mezzogiorno, the south of Italy. Midday was synonymous with the direction of
south
because in France the sun is in the south at noon, as in all of the Northern Hemisphere. The synonymy existed in Middle French as well, where meridien means both "midday" and "south.""
Martinich misinterprets this:
Where does Brigitte Bardot live?
In 34, Rue du Gaulle.
Martinich notes: "That's surely over-informative -- in some respect: it gives the street number alright; but totally vacuously uniformative in another: fails to indicate what suburb -- in the South of France".
"The point," he notes, is "whether we are going to visit her or not." In some search engines in cars, "34, Rue du Gaulle" will _yield_ the name of the village (because there's all and only villages down there). But the zip code may come handy. Etc.
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Grice has JUST introduced the 'implicature' (he did use the word as early as 1964) to Harvard (WoW:ii) and has groups of examples. The group B
ReplyDeleteis
"examples in which a maxim is violated, but its violation is to be explained by the supposition of a clash with another maxim."
"Scenario"
"A is planning with B an itinerary for a holiday in France."
And thus are NOT in France, we assume. But of course this IS defeasible. They can be two American tourists in Paris, speaking in Paris. They can be, perhaps more oddly, two American tourists in Montecarlo -- I like Montecarlo because it's NOT "France" but totally surrounded by the "South of France".
Grice goes on:
"Both know that A wants to see [Brigitte Bardot]."
"IF to do so would NOT involve too great a PROLONGATION of his journey"
A: Where does she live anyway? (adapted)
B: Somewhere in the South of France.
(thus with "S" properly capitalised -- cfr. the looser, non-U, "Somewhere in the south of France") -- He means "In the Midi", as per wiki entry above: quite a stretch if you ask me.
Grice's gloss:
(He does use "gloss" which is such a delight of a Gk. word, glossa, tongue -- where the 'ss' is vulgar to a Greek ear, cfr. epiglotis, and 'thalassa', the sea, the sea).
"There is no reason to suppose
that B is opting out"
"B's answer is, as A well knows,
LESS INFORMATIVE THAN IS
REQUIRED TO MEET A's needs".
-- Well, at least it's not,
"She died."
----
"This INFRINGEMENT of the first
maxim of Quantity can be
explained ONLY
on the supposition that
B is aware that to be
MORE INFORMATIVE
would be to say
something
[that he should be saying but isn't and]
that INFRINGED the second
maxim of Quality, 'Do not say
that for which you lack
adequate evidence'".
[Grice waxes colloquial here and has that as, "Don't say what you lack adequate evidence for", which is just what is required at this point].
Grice ends his gloss -- what step are we now at?
"So, B implicates that he
does not know in which town
[Brigitte Bardot] lives."
----
I _have_ to find out. Etc. I like dogs, too.
Etc.
--- I should get that Martinich thing. I think he called it, "Philosophical problems with the maxims", where he elaborates on some replies to
ReplyDeletecompare with "Somewhere in the South of France",
incl. the one with the 'hyperinformative' address (but _sans_ 'town' one).
Martinich was born in Russia, but he is regarded (by hisself and friends, etc.) as a very veritable Gricean. He edited a thing on analytic philosophy, I think, where S. Neale contributed on Grice -- and where the Locke lectures are said to be held in Oklahoma. Or something. I love them both!
---
The "34 Rue de Gaulle" is indeed Martinich's. It seems indeed, "underinformative" on one front, etc.
And there is indeed, as has been suggested, all the specifications.
Toponymic focusing is an art, especially in the South of France. Such a lovely sunny place.
-- Recall that the scenario in Grice is pretty particular, as per comment above.
So, as a buff for addresses in the "Midi" and "beyond" one wonders about county, 'country' -- as when we say "Brigitte Bardot country", etc.
I would THINK "South of France" cannot but mean the sexy bits about it, but I'll grant it can mean the Swiss Alps, too! :)
--- Etc.
And we need the zipcodes, so-called. And we should try and find out where (what suburb) she lives in. For, as I say, I love dogs.
(It's a good thing she spends the winter down there, unlike a lot of her Parisian 'so-called' "friends" -- we don't want to miss her -- and recall that for Queen Victoria, etc. the South of France was to exist only in the winter.) Etc.