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Is Grice the greatest philosopher that ever lived?

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Saturday, September 25, 2010

A Gricean-maxim based guide to good style

Quinion:

"The Marlin Chronicle, the student newspaper of Virginia Wesleyan
College, had a story on 17 September about a snake that fell from
the ceiling of an office. Cathal Woods says that the paper wrote of
the person who saw it: "When she checked to see what had fallen,
she dismissed the snake as a prank, thinking it was one of the
other workers.""

Analysis of

"When Mary checked to see what had fallen,
she dismissed the snake as a prank. Plus, she thought
it was one of the other workers"

Implicature: she was allegedly working -- but made a break to analyse the case.

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