The "Moraga!"-Moraga Theory of Meaning

In "Reply to Richards", Grice suggests:

"No language, no meaning"

and he may be right.

Ryle instituted what he called

the "Fido"-Fido theory of meaning.

On the other hand Grice liked cats. He named them according to the places where he found them. He had one called Sausalito (Grice lived in Berkeley), and one called Oakland. And a she-cat, called Moraga.

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In WoW:VI, he discusses:

"Fido is shaggy"
"Jones's dog is long-haired".

While Grice is right about

"without language, no meaning"

consider

cross-specific communication.

You tell (or 'tell' as Grice prefers) your dog,

"Fido!"

and he comes.

He seems to have 'understood' you. (Strawson 1964 for an analysis of '... understands ...' in terms of Grice's "... means ...").

Yet, how can a dog 'understand'?

He can't! (Or rather, he Kant).

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Dogs are on the whole, my mother says, more 'stupid' than cats. By that remark, she means that Pavlovian experiments on cats would have been fruitless.

"It is otiose to expect your cat to come to you by uttering her name".

Hence "Moraga!"-Moraga theory of meaning.

("Moraga is located on the 1835 Mexican Land Grant Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados given to Joaquin Moraga and his cousin, Juan Bernal. Joaquin Moraga was the grandson of José Joaquín Moraga.").