Related Discussion of Vacuous Definite Descriptions in "Presupposition and Conversational Implicature" (to Grice 1969, in Grice 1970)

by JLS for the GC

FIRST an editorial note. One should check that "Presupposition and conversational implicature", that Grice reprints in "Ways of Words" is actually dated (as per "Table of Contents" page) 1970 -- i.e. not much later than the "Vacuous Names" essay.

The example I wanted to bring the attention to is:

"The Loyalty Examiner won't be examining you, at any rate", since it nicely fits with the rather cursory treatment of 'descriptions' in the "Vacuous Names" essay.

What ARE the references to VACUOUS 'definite descriptions' in the "Presupposition and Conversational Implicature" essay? Let's have a look.

Well, the first is on p. 269, when we are presented to

'the present king of France'.

If that is not vacuous, I don't know what is.

Grice grants with Strawson:

"There is, indeed, something unnatural about assigning

a truth-value, as far as ordinary discourse is

concerned, to statements made by means

of sentneces containing VACUOUS DESCRIPTIONS."

-----


On p. 270:

"If I come on a group of people arguing
about whether the king of France is bald, it is
NOT linguistically IMPROPER for me to say
[truthfully] (that)

'The King of France is NOT bald; since there
is no king of France.'"

-----

-----

More interesting is perhaps his example of CANCELLATION which is 'contextual' or implicit, rather than via, "because there is no such King of France".

"If it is a matter of dispute

whether the Government has a very

undercover person who interrogates

those whose lolaty is suspect"


------- McArthur?



"and who, IF HE EXISTED, could

be legitimately referred to as

'The Loyalty Examiner'

----

"and, if, further, I am known

to be very sceptical about the

existence of such a person, I could
perfectly well say to a plainly
LOYAL person,

------ "Well, the Loyalty Examiner WILL Not
--- be examining you at any rate.""


And Grice could do this, he says,

"without, I would think, being taken

to have IMPLIED that such a person

exists"


---- but cfr.

"Well, someone won't be at this party?"
"Who?"
"The climber of Mt Everest on hands and knees".
"But it's in his honour"
"That as may be, but he doesn't exist -- HE was invented by the journalists"
------ (in "Vacuous Names", and cfr. similar conversation in Lewis Carroll discussed by Horn in "All of Smith's children are as bald as the king of France").



---

Grice goes on:

"Plus, if I am WELL known to

DISbelieve in the

existence of such a person as

the Loyalty Examiner, though

others ARE inclined to believe

in him [as they believe in God],

when I find a man who is apprised

of my position, but who IS

worried in case he is summoned,

I could TRY to reassure him by

saying,

------"The Loyalty Examiner won't summon you, don't worry"

--""

"Then it would be CLEAR that I said this because
I was sure there is no such person".

Actually such a reassurement would scare me a few bunches!

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There is the important discussion of the square-bracket device, which I will consider in a different post, and some!