Some like Otto, but Noam's my man

-- Oddly, I know LOADS of people who adore, worship, and would die for Otto Jesperson. We think he was a genius.

Yet, Grice was indeed on the band waggon that Dale aptly refers to when he writes, in "English Composition":

"With Chomsky (1957), Syntactic Structures, there
certainly suddenly seemed real hope that a syntax for
natural language was, ultimately, achievable."

----- and as being the fodder for Katz/Fodor's ultimately disappointing Markerese. This then is Grice as per "Reply to Richards".

The Bancroft collection contains many different versions of this address by Grice. My favourite is cited by Chapman as being entitled:

"Prejudices and predilections, being the life and opinions of Paul Grice" by Paul Grice, of course.

---- I just love the cheek (moxie) of Grice confessing that he is 'all too human' by displaying, unashamedly, these predilections and prejudices. For what can ONE _prove_ philosophically? It seems it's all a matter of 'amor theologicum', almost, and their corresponding 'apostasies'!

Grice writes:

"In my own case, a further impetus towards a demand
for the provision of a visible THEORY underlying
ordinary discourse [read: "English composition"! -- Speranza]
came from my work on the idea of Conversational
Implicature, which emphasised the radical importance
of distinguishing ... what our _words_ say or imply from
what _we_ in uttering them imply; a distinction ...
all too frequently ignored by Austin."

[and Langer -- that thing about "By uttering "London", U meant that ..." versus what the word "London" says or implies is so unWelbian (and unGricean) that it was good to have from Dale the comforting evidence that Langer's work may still have value!).

Grice goes on in the immediately suceeding passage:

"My OWN efforts to arrive at a more
theoretical treatment of linguistic phenomena
of the kind with which in Oxford we had LONG
been concerned derived much guidance from
the work of ... Chomsky on syntax."

"Chomsky showed vividly the kind of way in
which a region for LONG FOUND theoretically
untractable by scholars (like Jesperson [sic]) of
the highest intelligence could, by discovery and
application of the right apparatus, be brought under
control."

Next should be the reference to the "Syntactic Structures" bit, then.