A different scenario for an identificatory use of the same descriptive phrase,
"Jones' butler"
is provided by Grice:
"Earlier, another group has attended a party at Jones' house,
at which their hats and coats were looked after
by a dignified individual ... whom they heard Jones
addressing as 'Old Boy'" and who, at one point, was
discussing the cultivation of vegetable marrows with
an old lady.
----
One of the group says,
"Jones' butler got the hats and coats mixed up".
----
While, "whoever he may be" is appropriate in the non-identificatory use,
"it would," Grice notes, require special
circumstances to make a corresponding
insertion" in this second case.
----
"Anyone who was in a position to point out
taht Jones has no butler and that the man ...
with the protruding ears was Jones' gardener ...
would be in a position to claim that the utterer
misdescribe the individual."
--- "No such comment is in place with respect to the
nonidentificatory use".
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