Grice's Tapes -- Digitalised. In Midi -- Access Here

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

--- NO WAY -- but I can always advertise, no?

In fact, we need to advertise. With all those stupid youtube items on Madonna, Madonna, and Madonna, we need someone who will do as good a transcript of that well-known Lesbian, Judith Butler, and proceed with the Grice Tapes.

As S. R. Chapman notes, there are, er..., 5 tapes. These are DEKA, and someone has to turn them first into digital format. Then they have to provide the scenario so, when we transcribe them, we can add gestural gestures.

The Secretary of the Dept. of Philosophy (Donna Murphy) was supposed to do that, but he (Grice) died.

R. Paul commented to me the general scenario of watching Paul Grice lecture in his later years. He would stop at Reed, on the way to Seattle (Grice was a Visiting Professor with Seattle). "He would stop" -- I'm relying on memory, but R. Paul said this publicly to me -- "for a pause, and then he would continue talking." His lungs left something to be desired.

The same transcript detail is provided by S. R. Chapman: "You can hear his strong coughings in the tapes", she writes (words to that effect).

Members of the Grice Club are well aware that the one to blame here is not Grice, but his mother. "He looks like Noel Coward with that cigarrette", she would say. The effect: he took on the habit and would leave it only in 1985. (He smoked "Navy Cuts").

------

FEATURES IN THE GRICE TRANSCRIPT:

Suprasegmentals

--- his cough

--- the addressees. There are of various types. ALL TAPES (or most tapes) are from the Classrooms at Berkeley (Moses Hall, 56B). So we hear the students laugh -- and other. In one Tape, Grice tries to have one of his students _think_. He (the student) fails.

----

---- his "RP", as S. R. Chapman calls it. This seems to have irritated Chapman (who can do a Good Scouse Double Act -- she lives in Liverpool, and her first name is Siobhan). "He never abandoned his RP", she writes (or words). This reminds me of Jack Lemmon: "I never left England", but with a vengeance. Why would he drop what he 'received' -- i.e. his pronunciation? I Never Met ANYONE who lost his accent. If they did, shame on them!

---- The other -- when not students. There are talks with Judy Baker, and others -- notably G. P. Bealer. At one point, Grice told Harvard University Press that he'd rather have the book being as "by Paul Grice and others" -- since he was expecting to have some transcripts of these talks into the thing. No such luck for Baker or Bealer, so far, or this far.

---- The CONTENT. To what extend does the way of delivery inpinges on the philosophical content of what you are saying? M. Wrigley, for example, attended Grice's John Lectures at the Ryle Room in Merton. "I expect it was a good crowd", I inquired. "Yes, by Oxford standards in the decayed late 1970s. Allmost empty".

--- So what I propose is provide suprasegmental clues for Grice's introduction of the conversational maxims:


GRICE IS STANDING in Room 43A of "Emerson Hall". It's 6:16 pm, and Grice is talking about 'conversation':

---- He says:

----
I will leave the first line empty to signal
suprasegmental intonation:


---

On the assumption that SOME SUCH general principle

----

as this is acceptable, one may p'rhaps distinguish


---

FOUR 'kateg'ries under -- ONE OR ANOTHER --


---

of which will fall certain MORE SPECIFIC 'maeksims

---

---

and SUBmaeksims, the following of hwhich will,


---

in gen'r'l, yield results in accordance with



---

the ko-ouperativ 'prinsipl.



---

Ekouin Kaent, I call these 'kaet'gries


---

[solemnly]

Qwon'titi, Qwo'liti, Raelayshn, and Mannah.

----



---

The kaetog'ry of Qwo'ntiti relates, as it name suggests,


----

to the Qwon'titi (of information, of course -- to be


---

providid, and under it fo:l the following maeksims




---


meik your contribution as infourmativ as iz requird --


---

for the current purpoises of the ekstheindg.



----

Do NOT meik your kontribushn MORE informativ than



---
is required -- for the same purpoises, that is.




----

Yu:ll think the second maeksim is DISPOOTABLE. It



---

might -- but then it might again NOT -- be said



--

(by a pedant that is) that to be OUUUUva-informative


---

is NOT a transgreshn of the ko-uperative prinsipl


but mere -- [brief pause] "a weist of tyme"


-----

Howevah, it might -- and then again NOT, if the



-qwestshn is never made -- that such ouuuverinformativeness



---
may be konfusing in that it is liable to raise



---

side "ishoos". And there may ALSO be an 'INdirect effekt,



---

in that the hi:arars may be MISLED as a result of



---

thinking that there iz So:m partikulah POINT [emphasis Grice's. JLS in italics in the WoW: 27]



-----

in the provishn of the ex'cess of infourmeishn.

---


---

Howevah this may be, there is, p'rhaps, a DIFF'RENT ri:shn


---

for dAut abAut the admishn of this second maksim -- if it exists --



---

namely, that its effect will be 'se -KJUR-d by a


---

leitah maksim, which concerns 'relevanz.



-----

'

Anda the kat'gory of Qwolity fo:lls a supermaxim:


---

trai to meik your contribushn one that is TRUE.


---

And to more specific maeksims.




----

Do not say what you belive to be FA:::LSE.



and



"Do not sey that for hwhitch you laek 'adiqueit evidanz."


---

Anda' the kat'gory of Reyleyshn I place a 'singl maeksim,



---

namely, be relevant. Dau the maeksim 'itself, is TERSE,




its formuleishn konsi:::ls a namba of proublems



----

that exercise me --- [speeds up tempo] "a good deal".



---
qwestions abaut what diff'rent kainds AND FOUKUSES


---

of the aforementioned relivanz thea' may BEE:




hau thiiz shift in the ko:s of a to:k ikstcheindg,


---



how to alau -- as we HAVE TO ALAU -- for the fakt



---

that subjects of conversation ARE legitimately -- for



---

we wudn't be expected to ALAU them athawais --



----

changed, and so on and so forth.




----

I faind the tri:tment of such qwestshns EXCIIII:::DINly


--

diffikalt, and I hope to revert to them in later work



--- but not today since this is a PHILOSOPHY Talk, right?




---- So, to business.



---- Finally, and last, but not LI::::ST, under the




----

kaet'gri of Mannah, which I understand as relating NOT




--- laik the previous three categoroes) to what is zeid



---

but, rathah, to HAU [emphasis Grice's in italics, WoW:27]




===

hwho:t iz zeid IS [speeds up tempo] to-be ZEID, I includ



---

the super-maeksim, bee: perspe::::ku---ous




----

and vaerious sub-maeksims satch as:



----

avoid obs'kjurity ov ikspreishn


---


avoid ambi--guuiii-ti



--- [speeding tempo]: bi: bri:f



--- (avoid unnecessary prolixity, that is)



--- bi: oo:rarli.

---

"And one might need athars -- but not me. I'm not ANY one."

----


CONCLUSION:

In the following paper I attempt, with the aid of the transcripts of Grice's talk to indicate how what he said was often 'decorated' by the way he said it. Although called 'dry' by his enemies, he had a lot of charm as a conversationalist. Plus, I will argue that unless he said the things he said 'the way he said it' -- the 'how' of what he said it, as he says it -- is often determinant of what-is-said. In effect, I submit, in section III, that, without a how-it-is-said-it, there is no, simpliciter, a 'said-it'. I will pay special attention to eye-movement, since this is often relevant (if controversial) in conversation. I have assumed an average length of body proxemics, since he was NOT one that would ramble about as other boring teachers do."


--- DETAILS ABOUT TRANSCRIPTIONS:


[pf] indicates a 'puuf', -- i.e as he extracts the smoke of the cigarette from his mouth.


[^] inidicates a sudden raise in the intonation, when none is expected.


[kh] is a Greek phoneme that Grice uses -- best described as a Rhodesian click, for those of us who've visited the place (Rhodesia).


[huh huh ha: ha: pf] indicates slaugher, followed by a puff.


pf huuh ha: pff hmm] indicates a puff followed by (some brief) laughter



er -- indicates dubitation.



mmm --- indicates a non-linguistic pause -- it's a nasal phoneme, articulated by the pressing of Grice's lips to indicate that what the student has just said is more ridiculous than usual.



[r.h.] indicates: raised highbrows.



[FR.] indicates a frown (Vide Green, "Grice's Frowns").



[RH] indicates Grice's right hand.


[LH] indicates Grice's left hand




[ch] indicates a piece of chalk



[bd] indicates (black) board.




THE STANDARD "PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA" Symbols. [Grice would NEVER write an English word on the board: at most, he would expand on the Russellian symbolism, as he provides glosses for it.


astarisk subpsi --- 'asterisk sub psi'. [bb] indicates the way Grice proposes a symbol (asterisk sub psi) to be read allowed.



--- Etc.