Grice's Stranded Car

-- by J. L. Speranza
---- for the Grice Club.

I AM CONSIDERING KRAMER (comment, ex post facto/ex ante facto, post, this blog):

A: I am out of petrol.
B: I don't care.

Vis a vis, now, Grice's WoW:29.

"If you pass by [or approach me] when I am
struggling with my stranded car"

or standing by it, obviously immobilised as [she] is --

Grice goes on,

"I no doubt have some degree of
EXPECTATION"

--- this is Grice's key word --

"that you will offer help."'

Why? Benevolence, rather than self-love.

"But once you join me in tinkering under
the hood, my expectations become stronger"

---

rather than vanish.

Grice goes on:

"(in the absence of indications that you
are merely an incompetent meddler)"

-- or an innocuous otiose one:

A: I am out of petrol, if I may say [This seems otiose to me, in that there seems to be no need. I would rather go, echoing Horn, "Needless to say..." and stop at that].

B: So?

A: Well, ...

B: Well, what?

A: I wonder if you would care to let me know
---- if there is any garage near by?

B: Yes, my house.

A: I don't mean a private garage. I mean
--- what you Americans call a 'gas station'.

B: You mean an 'open' one? It's Sunday, you know. And 4 a.m.

A: No. I don't EXPLICITLY mean 'open'. I mean IMPLICITLY
--- open, if I must.

B: Open to what?

A: To the selling and buying of petrol, or 'gas' as you may
-- have it.

B: Petrol petrol?

A: Get lost.


-----

So the problem here is Leech. As he notes in his pluralistic "Principles of Pragmatics",

"I am out of petrol"

is ambiguous. First, as M. Dascal notes, in American English, this is used metaphorically to mean, "My inspiration is gone". "I'm out of fuel", out of the blue, is hardly LITERAL.

Strictly, it's

"My car is out of petrol".

---

This is supposed to provide a reason why A has stopped the car, involuntarily, in front of B's yard.

---

"I don't care. And you better move this sh*t right now outta here, or I'll report you to 911."

----

It seems Grice is being disingenous about the "There is a garage round the corner". First, strictly, it is "Around" not, 'round' the corner. The 'round' sounds too informal. And why should one TRUST a total strange with informal speech habits.

----

A: I am out of petrol, in case you care to help me and
-- let me know where the f*ck I may get some blooming
-- petrol.

B: I don't care.

Care about what?

-- B does not care that A's car is out of petrol. But he has APPROACHED A who is standing by the immobiised car. So what does HE implicate? Why be so unnecessarily rude?

----

As it happens, Grice owned a Volswagen. Oddly, he used it more as a philosophical milieu than as a means of transportation. He would park it, immobilised, in front of his house, and just philosophise there, if you can believe this!