------------- By J. L. S.
KRAMER aptly recalls the poetic very last line of E. B. White's "Charlotte's Web"
"It is not often that someone
comes along who is a true friend
and a good writer. Charlotte was
both."
Cfr. the implicature of 'was' (Cancelled: Not anymore. Sad).
Kramer writes, as a corollary:
"If my wife were to ask me whether someone is "a true friend." I might say, "well, he's a good writer," meaning "he's not a true friend"". He imagines a different reply:
"Well, I know he's a good writer,
but his friendship hasn't been tested".
Exactly: this cancels the implicature. I often wonder. Grice's example:
"He has beautiful handwriting"
+> He is hopeless at philosophy.
What irritates me is that in the literature, the man (the tutor) is painted as a _good_ person: he is only focusing on the good. Surely, I think he has to come out and do say why he thinks he is hopeless. I often find that there may be various reasons for that. But my name is Hope, and Speranza sorge eterna, so it's not a word I would EVER implicate. Having seen Grice's handwriting (horrid), one might just as well deduce that he is a philosophical talent, which he was.
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Reminds me of a comment that I used to criticise D F Wallace, supplied to a German critic.
ReplyDeleteSeeing as DFW is/was often referred to as a dazzling talent, I took the line that his work was "nothing but a demonstration of his talent." That 'but' was/is a fine way of introducing some perspective.
There was a Sinatra 'compliment' re: David Bowie after recording together.
ReplyDelete"He sings a nice counterpoint."
Perhaps Jason Kennedy can elaborate on the
ReplyDelete"nothing but a demonstration of his talent"
Call me thick (like a brick) ... but
is the 'conventional' implicature on its opposition to:
anything BUT...?
Anyway, it was a great compliment, thanks!
The demonstration of his talent reminds me of Borges when criticising Byron for criticising I forget who:
"I like his explanation. What we now need is an explanation of his explanation".
For surely if Wallace is BUT a demonstration of X, we never get to X.
My mother often says things that irritate me, regarding people,
"She has a great talent for..."
(It's usually mathematics). But then they are never put in use. Usually teachers, "Your son surely has a great talent for..." Etc. I think 'talent' is too much of a dispositional word. If he is good at something you just say it.
Plus, talent, as Allport noted, is usually confused with 'character'. And we are NOT interested in what's genetic or fails to be so in Wallace, necessarily, are we?
Etc.
The 'counterpoint' remark was a gem, Jason, thanks.
ReplyDeleteOnce L. R. Horn referred to my stuff as "Speranziana". I objected, but he said, "Surely you are not expecting "Speranzana"". He said he had googled, and that all hits retrieved "Sinatriana" but none "Sinatrana", which _is_ a cumpliment (sic).
I once wrote a thing on "Cumpliments", focusing on the merely illocutionary force.
"Nice!"
"Nice nose!"
or something. I was arguing, "The Implicature Was Sex", that the implicature was sex. But people objected. "Why has sex always to be implicated in your talk?"
I was examining "[expletive delete]" features and we were discussing the force of the F-word. Someone was saying that it's always sort of negative (a curse word, etc). I offered,
F- nice
as a counterexample but it did not precisely fall flat.
Counterpoint is one of the hardest... novels by Huxley.
But too, it's very hard.
I recall what Pavarotti said after spending a whole evening in his recording studio in Toscana with Sinatra, "He provides a nice counterpoint". Just joking!
----- While Kramer says he won't touch Liza Minneli with I forget what size of a pole, I never forgave Sinatra for having _stolen_ "New York, New York" from _her_ repertoire and making it his own!
Etc. But I love the man and the bobby soxers.
"Nothing but a demonstration of his talent."
ReplyDeleteNot 'Anything but...' but 'Nothing but...'
We could talk about how 'nada' covers both, and if/how a distinction in Spanish is possible.
**
A little similar to the handwriting crack.
Joyce, who on hearing his portrait painter wanted to capture his soul told him: "Don't worry about my soul, just get my tie right."
Yes, comparison with 'nada' is just on spot -- or even French 'rien' or Italian 'niente', etc. -- as per:
ReplyDeleteanything pronoun
qualche cosa, qualcosa;
(no matter what) qualsiasi cosa;
(after negative) niente;
take/buy ~ you like prendi/compra quello che vuoi;
I don't remember ~ non mi ricordo niente;
he's ~ but stupid è tutto fuorché stupido;
I'll do ~ but that farò qualsiasi cosa, tranne quello
'anything' trovato anche in queste voci:
Inglese:
declare - else - scarcely
Italiano:
altro - bastare - bocca - dichiarare - follia - mai - niente - qualcosa - qualsiasi - tutto - zucca
Traduzioni principali
anything pron (something) qualsiasi cosa pron
Anything might happen.
Potrebbe succedere qualsiasi cosa.
anything adv (to any extent) solo in frasi negative affatto avv
He isn't anything like his father.
Non è affatto uguale a suo padre.
anything n (a thing of whatever type) qualcosa pron
Have you anything to declare?
Ha qualcosa da dichiarare?
anything pron (any single thing) niente pron
I didn't hear anything.
Non ho sentito niente.
anything pron (all that is) qualunque cosa pron
I'll do anything to prove my love for you.
Farò qualunque cosa per provarti il mio amore.
Segnala un errore
Compound Forms/Forme composte
agree to anything essere d'accordo su tutto
anything but tutt'altro
anything else in domande qualcosa d'altro
anything else? (in stores) nei negozi altro?
anything like qualcosa di simile
be ready for anything essere pronti per qualsiasi evenienza o necessità
believe anything credere a tutto
hardly anything quasi niente
like anything come matti
like anything come non so cosa
not have anything to do with non avere niente a che fare con
not to expect s.t./ anything non sperare in qcs., non aspettarsi qcs.
ready for anything pronto a tutto agg
try anything once provare di tutto
you don't know anything non sai niente
----
On the other hand, wasn't it Wellington who said,
"warts and all"
--- My mother LOVES Joyce, and she knows ALL that needs to be known about Dublin and the Wellington monument in the park that Joyce often refers in Finnegans. She can talk and talk of the seacoast of Ireland too, especially the Dublin bits that open the Finnegans thing -- now a prestigious Yacht Club. And one of her favourite films of all time is "Norah".
I liked the film, and enjoy Joyce's musical culture: McEwan played him wonderfully, and I rejoyced in his singing "The man who broke the bank at Montecarlo" to beautiful Norah.
Etc. There are quite a few links online to Grice and Joyce. Perhaps the clearest (and why not, cleverest -- so far) is the Mutt double act. Well, if not cleverest or clearest, the most explicitly Gricean as I recall.
As it happens, Oscar Wilde's mama was Lady Speranza -- but she was of Derbys stock who happened to support "The Italian Question" (cfr. "The Irish Question"), etc. She was well played by Vanessa Redgrave in film with S. Fry.
Etc.
So indeed:
ReplyDelete"nothing but a demonstration of his talent"
is a precious gem!
for it _is_ nothing. It's not, Kant be, 'anything'. Thanks for that! But feel free to elaborate! Etc.