--- Jason for the Grice Club ---
This joke from Police Squad is rather amusing.
"Who are you? And how did you get in here?"
"I'm a locksmith and I'm a locksmith."
He could have been a locksmith and the door was open...
Despite its apparent awkwardness, is this the best response with regard to the Gricean maxims?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
You are very right. As Kramer would say, it would be "maximally efficient".
ReplyDeleteIt's good you note the awkwardness, though. Indeed, in symbols:
"p & p"
-- never mind the maxim of modus, 'be brief'.
It's up to the questioner to retrieve the implicatum of the second-conjunct.
Strictly, though, "who", I would reply.
"Dr. Speranza".
Just joking!
It strikes me that people respond to 'who' TOO SOON with a 'what'.
A locksmith seems to be _what_ he is, rather than _who_ he is. But for some reason, it strikes me that the name-drop seems to be on the overinformative side of things.
Actually:
"I'm Dr. Speranza, how d'you do. Locksmith and Locksmith."
Or something.
Thanks for sharing.
I agree re: the name.
ReplyDelete"Your worst nightmare and a locksmith."
Would still be amusing.
Uh, "Your worst nightmare and I'm a locksmith."
ReplyDeleteI assume is the police asking the question? Because they usually lack tact. Indeed, the Lancaster-based linguistic Geoffrey Neal Leach (born in Gloucester in the 1930s) suggested that Grice's maxims (as you call them, Jason Kennedy) should be expanded to add what he calls (Leech did) --
ReplyDeleteThe Tact Maxim.
"Be tactfull".
In General, Philosophers LAUGH with Leech's proposals: he is the ad-hocist. He finds a phenomenon and NEEDS a Gricean maxim to accompany it and explain it. He has "Polyanna maxim", "Banter maxim", and, as I say, "Tact" maxim. His "PrincipleS of Pragmatics" I happen to be pretty familiar because for some reason Leech is VERY Popular in Buenos Aires! He is the type of TESOL author -- Teaching of English as a Second Language, promoted, in a way, with other linguists, by big editorial companies -- Longman in his case --, so while I had to order ALL my Grices and Avramides and the rest of them from abroad and at my own expense, I could easily come across the Leeches!
So, if it's a policeman:
"How are you and how did you get in here?" we see the multiple question scenario that irritates Irwin Corey, "Why and do you wear tennis shoes?".
Policemen think they have the key to things, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of the cops who made the raher untactful query. It could be the inhabitant: "Who are you, if I ma ask, and how the f*ck did you get in here?".
In both cases, the lack of tact in the question certainly invites a flout of the Gricean maxim, 'be brief':
"I'm the locksmith and I'm a locksmith".
In the first case, the 'the' works as in 'the dictionary' -- "Look it up in the dictionary". This should be Move 65, because people are always making that silly request. It's seldom, "Wait -- I'll look it up in the dico".
The second 'a' (cfr. Grice, "Smith is meeting up with a woman this evening" +> not his wife or even daughter/sister/platonic friend) answers the "I managed to get in via unlocking the frigging wind-eye."
Apparently, the Anglo-Saxons were metaphorical in many respects. The 'window' is the wind's eye. I cannot see how a door can't qualify then.
Actually, it is a high-powered criminal asking the question *of* a policeman. The criminal is expecting it to be his girlfriend...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRva7z8pvwc&feature=related
Worth seeing.
Wow. That surprises me, because, as anyone who has seen any James Bond film -- I treasure a "Mad" satire to the effect --, criminals *never* lack tact, and it strikes me that his problem (the criminal), obviously momentarily disappointed in not seeing his girlfriend, or female friend, as I prefer, is making the gross mistake that I will address in a differen, post, right now, which I will entitle, "Moves and Turns".
ReplyDelete