Webster's Ghost As Exorcised by Grice

The document read,

D or d

--

Webster, who had a thing for dictionaries, read that, clumsily as

Dord

-- since it featured in a physics manual defining or daffining 'density' he entried it in his dicttionary:

dord: density

--- This is referred to as Webster's ghost, which is properly exorcised by Grice, of course:

1. If meaning is, as Grice says,
a matter of "intentions",
is a "ghost word" or item like 'dord'
really a "word"
(see his "Utterer's meaning, sentence meaning
and word meaning", in WoW). Is it an
utterance-part. Yes, for Webster. Although
he only 'mentioned' it, never _used_ it.

2. Can a "ghost word" or item cease to be so?
Yes. I.e. if
English people start _using_ (as they should --
"We love Webster -- he's from Connecticut alright",
that sort of thing) "dord" to mean "density"
there will be a procedure in the repertoire
of a group for which 'dord'
does mean "density". As when Grice told Schiffer
that in Oxford, 'we should get together and have
lunch sometime' _means_ 'later'.

3. Ross Eckler wrote on this in 1996.

Etc.