Grice, Of Course

--- by JLS
------- for the GC.


J. KENNEDY comments in "On Grice's Longer Day"

"How about any entry, JLS, on the nature of "Of course..." Some of the slang may originate from that used by thieves and prostitutes."

Which SHOULD merit an entry.

---- There is a full stop after "Of course...", so I'm not sure if Jason is suggesting that 'of course' originates with thieves and/or prostitutes. But I'll assume he thus suggests:

"Of course it's not for free --" (1876. Memoirs of Fanny LeGrice).

"Booty or life -- "But not both?" -- "Of course NOT" (1786 Diary of a supertramp).


-----


I think it's the horses's course.

"off the course".

If it originates with prostitutes, it may mean, 'lack of foreplay'. The course is just ... sex. Anything else is 'off the course' --. This complicates the story as to how "Off THE course", meaning, something trivial and "indispensable" to use Grice's phrase, meant to mean quite the opposite.

In Carl James, Contrastive Analysis, he reports how a silly German girl, who was staying with a little old London lady (as an exchange student) reported back.

LITTLE OLD LADY: Seeing that you are spending
---- the whole day at Hampton Court, I prepared
---- some sandwiches for you.

GRETCHEN inspects them.

LITTLE OLD LADY. I hope they are enough.

GRETCHEN -- "OF COURSE they are enough!"

----

Carl James comments: "Gretchen doesn't know the first thing about English. The 'of course,' volunteered as it is, is a breach of all that England represents: courtesy, innuendo, and understatement. She is basicall insulting the little old lady. What the little old lady was expecting was "That'll be perfectly fine, Missus Harris"".


OTHER USES OF 'of course':



Grice. The pillar box seems red to me.
Warnock. Well, it would. It IS red.
Grice. What d'you mean.
Warnock. Your use of 'seems' seems otiose.
Grice. And YOUR comment seems otiose.
Warnock. Why?
Grice. Of course the red pillar box is going
--- to seem red to me if it is red. But I...
Warnock. You what? Engaged in some further
--- philosophical analysis to no end?
Grice. No. I was trying to 'explicate' the
--- problematic notion of sense data by an
--- an appeal to something like
--- Bradley, Appearance and Reality.
Warnock. Of course you were.


--- Etc.