The Quasi-Stanley

--- By J. L. Speranza
------- for the Grice Circle.

JONES, "Strand 5", this blog:

"Once we get into the detail we find Grice seriously
interested in the candidacy of propositions, which in the
present context we may describe as the meaning of a sentence
in context."

I would point here to Grice's genial expression, the 'quasi-demonstrative'. Apparently, everything needed a quasi-demontrative attached to it:

"There is a book on the table"

is Grice's example (WoW:276).

This DOES predate Stanley Jason and his infamous contextualism. (He is an American philosopher).

For Grice wants to ask,

"What table".

Surely there are many tables, and "I trust a few books are on various tables, as I utter this."

So we need to be more specific.

Grice proposes to use the Greek letter, 'phi' as a quasi-demonstrative.

Thus, the logical form of

"The king of France wears a wig"

becomes:

"The present king of the present republic wich we call "France" wears a present wig".

"Standarly," Grice notes,

"to identify the denotatum of "phi"
for a particular co-text of utterance"

of, say,

"There is a book on a table"

----

"the addressee will proceed via the
identification of a particular
table."

And book, I would add.

"And this 'table' has to be deemed
by the addressee of the utterance
as being",

Grice has it,

"A good candidate" (Italic emphasis Grice's).

"for being the table 'meant'"

---

He would also need to go and

"identify the reference of "phi" by finding
in the candidate a feature"

e.g.

the one in front of the addreesse's eyes.

It is only then, Grice notes, that
the addressee

"can use "phi" to yield
a composite epithet"

--- this here table here --

to be what the Utterer has indicated when, in breach of all conversational maxims, but crucially, "don't be underinformative", said, 'the table' -- or 'one table' as MY mother would say.

--- (She finds 'the' obscene).

----